Day 6 of Australian Open 2018 marked the beginning of the junior events where the best young prospects in tennis began to ply their trade in a bid to take out the first junior Slam of the year.
It was a mixed day for the top seeds in the girls’ draw, with many of the top players upset in their opening matches.
American seventh seed Alexa Noel, Japanese fifth seed Naho Sato and Chinese ninth seed Xiyu Wang all progressed through to the next round.
Noel began the day with a comfortable 7-6(1) 6-1 win over Pole Stefania Rogozinska Dzik, while Sato was made to rally from a set down to defeat Brit Gemma Heath 3-6 6-2 6-2.
Wang was also made to work against Papuan Violet Apisah, who forced the Chinese 16-year-old to play her highest level of tennis in her 6-3 3-6 6-3 victory.
The upset of the day on the women’s side went to Australian Gabriella Da Silva Fick, who sensationally dispatched of eighth seed Nika Radisic 6-2 6-3.
It is the second consecutive week that Da Silva Fick has defeated the Slovenian, and the 17-year-old was delighted with her performance.
“I knew she was going to come out firing after last week so I am really happy I managed to get the job done,” she said.
“I took quite a lot of confidence from last week but you have to be careful with that confidence because you can’t be complacent because she’ll be ready and she knows what your game is now.
“I’m really really happy.”
Da Silva Fick also reached the second round of the Australian Open last year and being from Melbourne, winning matches in front of her family at Melbourne Park means the absolute world to her.
“It’s my home ground and it’s such a pleasure to play in front of the Australian crowds,” she said.
“It’s so uplifting and so inspiring, and to grab another win is just fantastic.
“I had the whole gang, they’re (family) all from Sydney so it was so nice to have them all there. All of my coaches and people I hit with who support me, to make them proud is special.”
The Australian was not the only one to beat a top seed, with Japan’s Himeno Sakatsume defeating Swiss third seed Simona Waltert 6-4 6-2 in another stunning upset.
The home contingent experienced mixed results, with Annerly Poulos joining Da Silva Fick in the second round with a 6-2 7-6(9) win over Pole Ania Hertel, while Megan Smith and Zara Brankovic fell to Mariam Dalakishvili and Daria Frayman respectively.
On the boys’ side, second seed Marko Miladinovic was made to work for his opening win against Brazilian Joao Lucas Reis da Silva.
The Serbian held a match point in the second set tiebreak but was ultimately pushed to a third before claiming his 6-3 6-7(9) 6-3 victory.
Miladinovic was disappointed to lose the second set, but his focus was to just stay calm and see out the tricky encounter.
“It was a great match, a tough match first round. I had a match point in the second set but lost it so I just tried to stay calm and I’m very happy to get through,” he said.
“I just kept focused and stayed positive, thinking I could win because I was preparing a lot, for two months.
“I stayed positive, and I got through.”
Miladinovic was joined in the second round by third seed Sebastian Baez and sixth seed Chun Hsin Tseng, who defeated Admir Kalender and Duje Ajdukovic respectively.
It was a torrid day for the rest of the seeds, with No.8 Nicolas Mejia, No.10 Juan Manuel Cerundolo, No.11 Thiago Agustin Tirante, No.15 Naoki Tajima and No.16 Tomas Machac all falling on the opening day of competition.
On the home front it was 16-year-old Rinky Hijikata who led the charge, with a 7-5 6-1 over Czech Jonas Forejtek, while top ranked Australian boy Thomas Bosancic and Tristan Schoolkate were both beaten by Malaysian Christian Didier Chin and China’s Tao Mu.