Japan’s Naoto Tomizawa and Thai Kamonwan Yodpetch are bound for Melbourne Park in January after they triumphed at last week’s Dunlop Road to the AO tournament.
Both secured wildcards into the main draw of the Australian Open 2025 junior championships after their victories at the Yokkaichi Tennis Centre in Japan.
Yodpetch was brilliant in the final rounds of the competition, sweeping New Zealand’s Aishi Das aside in the semifinals for the loss of just four games, before a 6-4 7-6(3) win over Nanami Goto of Japan in the final.
It means she will contest the Australian Open junior tournament for the second straight year, after falling in three tight sets in the first round of 2024.
Yodpetch, 17, peaked at an ITF junior ranking of world No.73 earlier this month after an impressive season in which she won the J60 title on home soil in Nonthaburi and a further two finals – one at the J200 event in Miki Japan.
For Tomizawa, the Australian Open wildcard will represent the 17-year-old’s junior Grand Slam debut.
He secured his ticket to Melbourne with a 5-7 6-0 6-2 triumph over fellow Japanese Shion Itsusaki in the final.
In the semifinals Tomizawa surprised No.1 seed Hiromasa Koyama – a player ranked 300 places higher in the ITF junior rankings – by a scoreline of 6-3 6-1.
He might have played sparingly in 2024, but when he has competed, he’s been strong; Tomizawa has won 15 of his 21 matches on the ITF circuit, including a triumph at the J60 tournament in Jakarta.
He and Yodpetch will compete in the Australian Open 2025 junior championships at Melbourne Park which begin Saturday 18 January.
They will join Brazilians Nauhany Vitoria Leme Da Silva and Pedro Albuquerque Dietrich, who earned their AO junior wildcards by winning last month’s AO Junior Series South America event in Rio de Janeiro.