{"id":9176,"date":"2026-05-26T19:05:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T09:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/?p=9176"},"modified":"2026-05-26T19:14:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T09:44:35","slug":"serving-up-history-inside-the-epic-99th-nt-open-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/news\/2026\/05\/26\/serving-up-history-inside-the-epic-99th-nt-open-championships","title":{"rendered":"Serving Up History: Inside the Epic 99th NT Open Championships!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What a weekend of world-class rallies, grit, and pure tennis magic! The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/news-and-events\/events\/nt-open-championships\"><strong>99th NT Open Championships<\/strong><\/a> officially took over the courts for 2.5 jam-packed days from Friday, 22 May to Sunday, 24 May.<\/p>\n<p>With a rich legacy dating all the way back to <strong>1920<\/strong>, this historic tournament proved that nearly a century later, tennis in the Top End is bigger, bolder, and more exciting than ever.<\/p>\n<h3>A True Nationwide Showdown<\/h3>\n<p>This wasn&#8217;t just a local hit-out. Nearly <strong>100<\/strong> players descended on the territory, turning the tournament into a massive interstate battleground with competitors flying in from:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Queensland (QLD)<\/li>\n<li>Australian Capital Territory (ACT)<\/li>\n<li>South Australia (SA)<\/li>\n<li>New South Wales (NSW)<\/li>\n<li>Victoria (VIC)<\/li>\n<li>Western Australia (WA)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The courts were buzzing with a brilliant mix of local heroes from<strong> Tennis Palmerston<\/strong>, <strong>Darwin International Tennis Centre<\/strong> (DITC), and <strong>Gardens Tennis<\/strong>, alongside ambitious travelling players warming up for the back-to-back Junior ITF events.<\/p>\n<p>From the absolute youngest stars making a racket in the <strong>Red Ball<\/strong> and <strong>Orange Ball<\/strong> divisions (which saw a record-breaking number of our Orange Ball entries!) to the rising stars in the <strong>12\/u<\/strong>, <strong>14\/u<\/strong>, and <strong>16\/u<\/strong> brackets, right up to the powerhouse <strong>Men\u2019s<\/strong>, <strong>Women\u2019s<\/strong>, and <strong>Adult Social<\/strong> divisions &#8211; the energy was unmatched.<\/p>\n<h3>Championship Sunday: Grit, Glory, and Epic Revenges<\/h3>\n<p>Sunday was the ultimate test of endurance, featuring grueling back-to-back semi-finals and grand finals. A few familiar workhorses even locked in spots in multiple finals, showing serious heart.<\/p>\n<h6>The Women\u2019s Open: Crossman\u2019s Masterclass<\/h6>\n<p>The Women&#8217;s Open was a thrilling saga of familiar foes. <strong>Isabella Crossman [1]<\/strong> (VIC) and <strong>Naomi-Mariana Vakadranu [4]<\/strong> (WA) dominated the weekend, facing off in both the singles and doubles finals.<\/p>\n<p>Over on center court, Crossman teamed up with <strong>Piper Freeman<\/strong> (flying the flag for the NT via NSW) to put on a clinical performance. They captured the doubles crown against Vakadranu and<strong> Liana Polozani<\/strong> (WA) with a dominant<strong> 6-3<\/strong>, <strong>6-0<\/strong> victory.<\/p>\n<h6>The Men\u2019s Open: Fresh Faces &amp; Double Drama<\/h6>\n<p>The Men&#8217;s Open brought an entirely new lineup of fresh faces to the finals, along with plenty of high-stakes drama.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Singles:<\/strong> After surviving a brutal match tie-break in his semi-final, South Australia&#8217;s <strong>Callum Gale [1]<\/strong> dug deep to defeat Western Australia&#8217;s <strong>Aidan Chan [2]<\/strong> in a spectacular Grand Final. Chan had earned his spot after an intense &#8220;friendly fire&#8221; semi-final against his own doubles partner, <strong>Tommy Camus [3]<\/strong> (ACT).<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Doubles Revenge:<\/strong> Aidan Chan didn&#8217;t have to wait long for redemption. Teamed back up with Camus, the duo exacted sweet revenge in the doubles final, taking down the South Australian pairing of <strong>Callum Gale<\/strong> and <strong>Gurneil Singh<\/strong> in a thrilling <strong>6-1<\/strong>, <strong>7-6<\/strong> showdown.<\/p>\n<p><em>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/tournaments.tennis.com.au\/sport\/winners.aspx?id=0721c9ed-232b-4cec-8c84-e25e921f584b\"><strong><u>HERE<\/u><\/strong><\/a> to see the full list of winners and finalists!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>See the Facebook Album from the finals day <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/media\/set\/?set=a.1625187116276498&amp;type=3\"><strong><u>HERE<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<h3>A Massive Thank You!<\/h3>\n<p>An event of this scale doesn&#8217;t happen without an incredible team behind the scenes. A massive shoutout and thank you to all the <strong>players, parents, coaches, local clubs, tournament staff, and referees<\/strong> whose dedication and hard work made the 99th NTOC an unforgettable success.<\/p>\n<p>Good luck to all the athletes competing in the prestigious ITF tournaments over the next two weeks!<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/18jzD3WFRw\/\"><strong>J30 Darwin Junior International Event Details<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/18fjmm97ts\/\"><strong>J60 NT Junior International Event Details<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>Next Up: Don&#8217;t Miss the Sunday Showdown!<\/h3>\n<p>The tennis fever isn&#8217;t cooling down just yet! Clear your schedules for a massive day of court-side action at the <strong>Sunday Showdown<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Catch the back-to-back girls&#8217; and boys&#8217; finals for the<strong> J30 Darwin Junior International<\/strong>, alongside plenty of off-court entertainment. Bring the family for delicious food, refreshing drinks, fun activities, and awesome prizes!<\/p>\n<p><strong>When:<\/strong> Sunday, 31 May from 9:00 AM<\/p>\n<p><strong>Where:<\/strong> Darwin International Tennis Centre<\/p>\n<p><strong>Event Details:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/1E3H6naSfm\/\">Facebook Event<\/a><\/p>\n<p>See you courtside!<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p><!-- \/wp:post-content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What a weekend of world-class rallies, grit, and pure tennis magic! The 99th NT Open Championships officially took over the courts for 2.5 jam-packed days from Friday, 22 May to Sunday, 24 May. With a rich legacy dating all the way back to 1920, this historic tournament proved that nearly a century later, tennis in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6428,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6428"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}