For most of Canberra’s elite players, the month of August has meant a training block in Canberra. A chance to work on technique and fitness and an opportunity to really improve their game. However for some pro players it’s business as usual, including ACT’s highest ranked male and female players, Nick Kyrgios and Alex Nancarrow. Nick continues his rise, backing up his Wimbledon quarter-finals with a 3rd round showing at the US Open Nick showed us that Wimbledon was no fluke, defeating top 50 players Youzhny and Seppi before losing a very tight match against Tommy Robredo. Nick returns to Canberra for 2 days before leaving to Perth to prepare for the Davis Cup. WELL DONE NICK, WHO WILL BE THE NO.1 RANKED MALE PLAYER IN AUSTRALIA WHEN THE NEW RANKINGS COME OUT AFTER THE US OPEN!
Alex Nancarrow continues her ranking rise in both singles and doubles by competing in professional events in Europe. Alex’s favourite surface is clay and for the past 3 years she has based herself out of Spain (returning to Australia usually in December) where she can compete and train on clay most of the year. Alex speaks fluent Spanish (her mother was born in Spain) and it’s the perfect spot to base as a professional. This year has been her most successful, cutting her singles ranking from 919 to 438 and her doubles ranking from 730 to 374. This week Alex won another doubles title (now up to 9 for the year as well as 4 runners-up!). Alex is now the 12th highest ranked singles player in Australia.
Last week the Primary Schools National Carnival was held in Darwin. Whilst the ACT as a team struggled this year finishing 8th, it was an outstanding event for 11 year old local Annerly Poulos. Playing at the No.1 position, Annerly was undefeated in singles against the No.1 players from every other State. She also reached the semi-finals of the individual event, going down only to eventual champion Olivia Gadecki from Queensland. Annerly then won the playoff for 3rd, defeating WA No.1 Monique Barry 6/1,6/1. Well done Annerly what a great tournament!
This month 15 year old Dimi Morogiannis returned from his European tour. Dimi was selected on the Tennis Australia tour and spend 5 weeks playing and training in Germany, Holland and the Czech Republic. Dimi’s best result was the round of 16 in the Czech ITF event, and benefitted hugely from the experience of training with and competing against the best young European players of his age. And congratulations to Dimi for taking out the ACT Junior High Performance Player of the Year Award for 13/14 – received by Dimi at the awards on Saturday night!
A few ACT junior players travelled to Parkes, with some outstanding results. In the 12/u girls singles Ashleigh Simes continued her rise up the rankings by taking out the 12/u Girls singles, whilst Tallulah Farrow showed she was the best player in the field, easily winning the 14/u girls singles event. Tallulah is now 13th in her birth year in Australia and on the rise!
Also performing consistently well is ACT player Luke Sarris. Luke has been steadily moving up the rankings this year. Recently he won the 14/U boys singles at both the Orange Indoor event and the Ulladulla event. Luke backed this up with a semi-finals appearance in Parkes on the weekend. Other notable results from the month include Jake Okines’ semi final at the 18/u boys singles at the Nepean Gold AMT. Jake has also secured a US College scholarship and will leave Canberra in January 2015.
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