Emilie Chen and Luca Connaughton were crowned singles champions at the 2025 18/u Australian Tennis Championships in Launceston on Sunday.
The annual event features 16 of Australia’s top under-18 players competing for a main-draw singles wildcard into the Burnie and Launceston Pro Tour events next year, while finalists earn a wildcard into one of the two.
Chen, just 15 years old, toppled five older opponents to reach the final before outlasting 14-year-old Musemma Cilek 4-6 7-6 6-3 to lift the Juniors 1000 trophy.
"I kind of just locked down on each point, and I just thought about how to play tactically, didn't worry too much about the score," said Chen, who suffered from an illness earlier in the tournament.
"I kind of thought to myself, if I can survive food poisoning, I'm sure I can survive like a three-set match in tennis."
Her win continues a strong run of form after back-to-back finals at Juniors 60 events in Thailand in late October. Placed at No.546 in the ITF Junior Rankings, Chen hopes to use the title as momentum for her next milestone in 2026.
"My goal, ranking-wise, is probably to break into the top 100 of the ITF. This year I was focusing a lot on coming back from my injury, so this is a good way to end the year," she said.
"And hopefully I can win a couple of rounds of Australian Open 2026 juniors if I get into it."
For Cilek, the week brought both progress and frustration. After pushing Chen in the singles final, she returned with Scarlott Dattoli as second seeds in the girls' doubles decider, where top seeds Alicia Dale and Gabrielle Villegas had their number 6-1 6-4.
In the boys' singles, 18-year-old Connaughton advanced from his round-robin group with a 2-1 record before producing a commanding 6-1 6-1 performance against 17-year-old Marki Kallos in the final.
"It feels pretty good. It's my last junior event ever, so it's nice to take it out with a win," Connaughton said.
"For me, just being able to end off my junior career with a win shows that all the hard work of the past five, six years is paying off."
The victory sends Connaughton back into the winners' circle a little more than a year after his title run at the Perth Junior Championship. It’s a reminder of how far he’s come, and of the steps still ahead as he moves into senior competition.
"Keep working hard, putting in the work and training core in the gym, and then just trying to keep progressing my game," Connaughton said of his 2026 goals.
"Building my weapons, building my mentality and just see where it takes me. Give it a crack in the Pro Tour events and just try and build that right up as much as possible."
In the boys' doubles, Connaughton and Aryan Karnani reached the quarterfinals, falling to eventual finalists Flyn Coventry-Searle and Har Abir Sekhon. The title went to Baxter Errey and Thomas Ranson, who closed out the tournament with a 6-3 6-1 win.