Western Australian players have produced some excellent performances at the 2017 Australian Junior Age Titles held in Geelong Victoria. Our best ever haul includes three wins, one runner-up and two third placings.
Oscar Curtis lived up to his no. 1 seeding by totally dominating the Boys under 13 event. He did not drop a game in any of his matches and in the final had a comfortable 11-4, 11-6, 11-2 victory against the third seeded Benjamin Murray from Queensland.
The fighting qualities of Erin Classen were evident in the Girls under 15 event when she defeated the top seeded Katie Davies from Queensland (11-4, 7-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7) in a hard fought final and in doing so, added an Under 15 title to the Under 13 title she won last year.
In the Boys under 15 event, Gregory Chan also added an Under 15 title to a growing list of Australian Junior Championship victories with wins in Under 11 (2014) and Under 13 (2015 & 2016). In this year’s event decider he defeated a surprise finalist (thirteenth seeded Luke Eyles from Queensland) in four games (11-9, 11-7, 8-11, 11-8) .
Abel Jin finished as runner up in the very competitive Boys under 17 event. Starting as the fifth seed Abel played exceptionally well to work his way through to the final before falling to the top seeded Jacob Ford from New South Wales (9-11, 11-9, 7-11, 4-11). Abel being the only player to take a game off Jacob during the tournament.
Our two third place getters (Pascale Louka – Girls under 17 and Isla Harris – Girls under 11) both went down to a No. 1 seeded player in their Semi Finals (Isla in a very tight five games) before fighting back to win their respective third/ fourth playoffs. Both coincidently winning with the same 11/4, 11/4, 11/7 score.
Overall fifteen Western Australian players finished with a top eight position and an additional ten within the top sixteen to again evidence the steady development of junior players within this State.
As the icing on the cake, Oscar Curtis and Dylan Classen teamed up to win the inaugural under 15 Doubles event.
