Cruz Hewitt and Emerson Jones headlined the winners at the Australian Tennis Awards on Monday night.
Held at the Palladium Ballroom at Melbourne’s Crown Casino, 13 awards were presented, recognising the achievements of Australia’s shining stars in 2025 from grassroots to the elite level.
Hewitt was awarded the Male Junior Athlete of the Year award for his breakout year. The 16-year-old competed at all four junior Grand Slams, claiming match wins at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
“[Playing at those junior Grand Slams] helped a lot,” he said. “The great experience with all the crowds and the different environments and places you play at, it helped my game a lot, and I learned a lot to take it into the men's tournaments.”
Jones, the Australian Pro Tour AO 2026 women’s singles wildcard recipient, won Female Junior Athlete of the Year. In the second half of 2025, the 17-year-old transitioned to the professional circuit, currently ranked as high as singles world No.150.
“As soon as I hit junior world No.1, it was kind of just like, ‘I think I should move into women's now and start focusing on that’. Especially as I am getting older,” Jones said.
“Playing juniors with the girls, they are great players, and they also play women's too. The top juniors are no different to the women.”
The Queenslander claimed the award for a second straight year after sharing the trophy with Australian women’s singles No.1, Maya Joint, in 2024.
Joint’s coach, Chris Mahony, was also acknowledged for his efforts on Monday night, winning the Coaching Excellence – Performance Award, presented by Culture Amp, which honoured Australia’s long history of elite high-performance coaches.
Mahony guided Joint to her first two WTA titles in 2025, emerging victorious in Rabat and Eastbourne. The teenager rose from world No.118 at the start of the year to world No.32, surpassing Daria Kasatkina as Australia’s top-ranked women’s singles player.
“She had a very consistent 12 months. You see a lot of young players have ups and downs through the course of a year on the different surfaces. Maya has been very consistent on all surfaces,” he said.
Winning Eastbourne made her believe that she belonged in the top 100 even though she was well and truly there already. We saw a change in her after that tournament in the middle of the year. It took her a little bit of time because it all happened so quickly.”
The Queenslander also became the interim Culture Amp Australian Billie Jean King Cup coach, standing in for Nicole Pratt, who replaced Sam Stosur as captain for the Play-offs against Brazil and Portugal in Hobart in November.
“It was an amazing week. I was just happy to help out Sammy and Pratty and Fish (Rohan Fisher), but it's such a great group of women,” Mahony said.
The female playing cohort is just full of special ladies. To go down there and just help out even if it was once, I loved it. To see them win and get through for [to the Qualifiers] for next year was fantastic.”
Award winners from the 2025 Australian Tennis Awards:
Coaching Excellence – Club
Owen Peemoller (ACT)
Most Outstanding School
Maitland Lutheran School (SA)
Male Junior Athlete of the Year
Cruz Hewitt (NSW)
Female Junior Athlete of the Year
Emerson Jones (Qld)
Coaching Excellence – Development
Des Tyson (Vic)
Excellence in Officiating
Phillip Goodman (Vic)
Volunteer Achievement Award
Kirsty Cole (NSW)
Most Outstanding Athlete with a Disability, presented by ANZ
Hunter Thompson (Qld)
Jin Woodman (Vic)
Most Outstanding Tournament
MDTC Open Championships (SA)
Most Outstanding Club, presented by Howden
Oakleigh Tennis Club (Vic)
Most Outstanding 35+ Tennis Master
Ros Balodis (ACT)
Coaching Excellence – Performance, presented by Culture Amp
Chris Mahony (Qld)
Most Outstanding Inclusion Initiative
Hobart Out Tennis Club (Tas)
Spirit of Tennis Award
Allan Stone
Newcombe Medal
Alex de Minaur (NSW)