Melbourne Park, 5 December 2012 | Jaclyn Stacey

Sixty-four of the country’s most promising 14 and under players took to the courts at Melbourne Park today for the first matches of the round robin stage of the Optus 14s Australian Championships.

Michelle Pits of Victoria, the number one seed on the girls’ side, completed one of the first matches of the day, racing to victory against Western Australian Olivia Rimmer 6-1 6-0 in just over one hour on Court 11 this morning.

Pits’ win signalled a strong day for the seeds in the 32-player strong girls’ competition with 14 of the 16 seeded players recording a win.

> View Optus 14s Australian Championships photos

Maddison Inglis of Perth, the number two seed, was too strong for her opponent Gabriela Mclaughlin and won her match 6-2 6-0.

Third seed and 2011 Optus 12s Australian champion Destanee Aiava was all class in her win over Ashleigh Harvey 6-1 6-0.

Young Sydney talent Seone Mendez recorded a solid win, finishing with a 6-1 6-0 win over Alexandra Bozovic.

Several of the girls’ matches went the distance, requiring a third set to decide the winners, most notably the match between ninth seed Imogen Clews from Canberra and Jessie Mount from Victoria, which lasted a minute shy of three hours, with Clews closing the gruelling match out 6-3 5-7 6-4.

Another marathon match was played out between Adelaide native and tenth seed Nicole Kraemer who is recovering from injury, and Daniela Kovacevic from Queensland, which ended with Kraemer fighting back from a set down and securing victory in a tight final set tiebreak 4-6 6-2 7-6(6) in exactly three hours.

On the boys’ side of the competition, top seeded Western Australian Scott Jones got off to a strong start in his match, winning the first set comfortably 6-3.

He experienced more of a challenge in the second set, with opponent Bosko Novakovic of NSW matching Jones and taking the set to a tiebreak decider which Jones won easily, losing only one point and closing out the match 6-3 7-6(1).

Over on Court 23, Alex De Minaur, the number four seed from NSW, played an aggressive game and frustrated his opponent in his 6-3 6-3 victory over Lucas Vuradin of Victoria.

De Minaur hit some impressive winners during crucial points in the second set, pumping his fists to motivate himself to the win. De Minaur assessed his game following the match saying, “I started off missing a lot and then I sort of got into my game plan which is more attacking and changing the pace.”

On his chances in the tournament this week he said, “If I just play my game and with a good attitude and good footwork I’m hoping to make it pretty far.”

Other results saw second seed Max Purcell of Sydney dominate play over his opponent Zak Marshall from Victoria 6-2 6-1 in under one hour on Court 18, while third seeded Victorian Richard Yang defeated Michael Commings 6-3 6-2.

The round-robin matches continue on Thursday, with the player finishing top of each of the eight groups progressing to the quarterfinal knockout stage of the tournament.

> Get the latest scores, draws and order of play