Melbourne VIC, Australia, 30 July 2015 | Tennis Australia

Australia’s best junior male tennis players will compete at the prestigious ITF World Junior Tennis Finals next week at the TK Plus Centre in Prostejov, Czech Republic.

Australia secured its place in the world finals – to be staged on 3-8 August – back in April when they finished third at the Asia-Oceania final qualifying event in Bangkok, Thailand.

Established in 1991, the ITF World Junior Tennis tournament is an international team competition for players aged 14 years and under. Teams from 16 different countries will battle it out in round robin groups before the top teams progress to the knock-out stage in pursuit of the world title.

Australia will be represented by Tristan Schoolkate (WA), Dane Sweeny (Qld) and Mason Naumovski (Vic) and coached by Tennis Australia National Academy Coach Mark Hlawaty.

“The boys have had a solid block of training in the Netherlands with plenty of court time playing against juniors from all over the world,” said Hlawaty.

“The team will be pumped this weekend when we have the opening ceremony and they realise they are wearing a T-shirt that says Australia on the back, and just the pride that comes with that.

“Having those few weeks of tournament play at such a high level before the final is invaluable. I hope we can secure a victory just like the Australian Davis Cup team did a couple of weeks ago in Darwin.”

The ITF World Junior Tennis Finals draw will be available online via the ITF Juniors website ahead of play next Monday.

There are currently five Australian boys in the top 100 ITF junior rankings and 19 in the top 500.

Australia last won the World Junior Tennis competition in 2007 when Jason Kubler (Qld), Joey Swaysland (NSW) and Ben Wagland (Qld) led the nation to victory.

Australian Davis Cup hero Lleyton Hewitt also played this competition in 1994 and 1995 and top players such as Rafael Nadal (ESP), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) and Andy Roddick (USA) have all represented their countries at this prestigious event.