Melbourne, 13 January 2012 | tennis.com.au

The world’s best juniors will descend on Traralgon for the 19th annual Loy Yang Power Traralgon International, taking place from 15 to 20 January.

Qualifying for the ITF Grade 1 tournament starts today with the main draw beginning on Sunday, giving local fans the opportunity to watch a high-quality field as they prepare for the Australian Open Junior Championships, part of Australian Open 2012 at Melbourne Park.

In the boys’ main draw, Australia will be represented by the new world no.1 junior and 2011 Junior Wimbledon Champion Luke Saville (Barmera, SA), world No.7 junior Andrew Harris (Blackburn, Vic), Nick Kyrgios (Watson, ACT) and James Frawley (O’Connor, ACT).

Matthew Tanza (Carlingford, NSW), Jay Andrijic (South Penrith, NSW), Jack Schipanski (Glengowrie, SA), Jordan Thompson (Cherrybrook, NSW), Li Tu (Adelaide, SA), Bradley Mousley (Wynn Vale, SA), Christopher O’Connell (Belrose, NSW) and Jacob Grills (Ocean Grove, Vic) will also compete after they were awarded wildcards into the tournament.

International players in contention will include world No.2 junior Thiago Monteiro from Brazil, world No.3 junior Liam Broady from Great Britain and world No.4 junior Kaichi Uchida from Japan.

World No.53 junior Abbie Myers (Georges Hall, NSW) will take part in the girls’ draw. She will be joined by fellow Australians and wildcard recipients Eliza Long (Knowsley, Vic), Brigette Beck (Point Cook, Vic), Storm Sanders, (Safety Bay, WA) Belinda Woolcock (Mt Waverley, Vic), Brooke Rischbieth (Berri, SA), Naiktha Bains (Brisbane, Qld), Priscilla Hon (Rochedale, Qld) and Andrea Dikosavljevic (Sippy Downs, Qld).

World No.3 junior Eugenie Bouchard from Canada, No.6 Anett Kontaveit from Estonia and No.14 and 2011 Australian Open Junior Champion An-Sophie Mestach from Belgium are some of the international representatives that will make up the girls’ field in Traralgon.

Tournament Director Francis Soyer is expecting a high level of competition as the junior circuit gets underway for another year.

“The Loy Yang Power Traralgon International will offer the world’s best juniors the perfect preparation before the first junior Grand Slam of the year.

“The players enjoy coming out here to secure some solid matchplay and the Traralgon Tennis Association continues to offer fantastic facilities. We hope the competitors can perform to the best of their ability over the next week,” said Soyer.

Previous winners of the Loy Yang Power Traralgon International include Spain’s Andres Artunedo Martinavarr and Portugal’s Monica Puig.

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