TENNIS
TRARALGON JUNIOR INTERNATIONAL
BY TOM HAYES
Anything possible after junior tournament
IF you are walking around Traralgon within the next week, there’s a good chance you’ll notice a racket coming from the Traralgon Tennis Association.
And some of the kids with tennis bags, one of them might just one of the next big things of the sport.
That’s right. The 32nd edition of the AGL Loy Yang Traralgon Junior International is here, as teenagers from all over the world are set to land in the region to start their campaigns for 2025.
Hundreds of people are set to give the community a boost, filling hotels, cafes, and restaurants over the next week or so, with Junior Australian Open qualifying is set to follow the tournament.
From today (Wednesday, January 8) until Wednesday, January 15, hundreds of these budding tennis stars will be vowing to put the world-famous Akubra on their heads (as well as the honour of winning their respective titles).
The calibre of players that have started their careers with the Traralgon Junior International over the last three decades remains at a high level.
Most famously as far back as 1998, the one and only Roger Federer graced the courts of Traralgon, before he went on to win 20 grand slams.
And more recently in 2017, Iga Swiatek won the Traralgon Junior International before she won multiple grand slams and held the women’s world number one ranking for over 100 weeks.
The opportunity is all there for those kids, but winning isn’t everything.
Many players have failed at the Traralgon Junior International, but still succeeded in the sport of tennis.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga got his start in Traralgon, and despite not getting his hands on the Akubra, he went on to reach world number five in the men’s rankings, and he even won he 2008 Australian Open.
Again just two years ago in 2023, a Russian 15-year-old by the name of Mirra Andreeva took the Traralgon Tennis Association by storm.
Competing in both the singles and doubles that week, Andreeva showed enough composure to make it to the finals in both disciplines. She fell in the singles, but won the doubles, before going on to lose another final at the Junior Australian Open, to fellow Russian Alina Korneeva.
Still only 17 years of age, Andreeva is currently ranked world number 16 in the women’s rankings and boasts prize money north of $2 million.
She has showed that she has what it takes, defeating grand slam champions already at major tournaments. Just last year, she defeated then-world number six Ons Jabeur at the Australian Open, as well as current world number one Aryna Sabalenka at the French Open.
“We are excited to have a Family Fun Fest on Friday, January 10 from 4pm to 7pm. This will be in the public car park and activities will include a pickleball come and try, Australian Animals Petting Zoo, Activation site, and a food stall, Traralgon Tennis Association Manager, Susie Grumley said.
“We welcome all community members to the event to watch the world’s best 16, 17, and 18-year-old players, the future champions of our much-loved sport.”
The qualifying rounds take place on January 8 and 9, with the main draw beginning on January 10. The finals are set for Wednesday, January 15. Both singles and doubles tournaments are scheduled for the boys and girls categories.
Following the Traralgon Junior International twilight finals will be qualifying for the Junior Australian Open on January 15 and 16.
Entry is free for all spectators.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Qualifying Rounds: January 8 and 9
Main Draw: January 10-15
Junior Australian Open Qualifying: January 15 and 16
Where: Traralgon Tennis Association, Franklin Street, Traralgon
Young stars worth keeping an eye on
HUNDREDS of young tennis stars from across 37 countries and six continents will descend on the courts of Traralgon this week.
Of course, there are players who have climbed the rankings and deserve to have an eye on them as they begin to make the progression from junior to professional tennis.
Take note of the following players who have placed themselves in prime position for the 2025 AGL Loy Yang Traralgon Junior International.
FOR the boys, 18-year-old Jan Kumstat from the Czech Republic will don the number one seed.
Kumstat will return to Traralgon as one of the hottest prospects this year, following his second round exit last year, after moving up into ninth in the latest boys’ rankings.
He has made many a leap since Traralgon last year, beginning just the week after, making the Final of the Australian Open Junior Championships, losing to the 2024 Traralgon Junior International boys champion, Rei Sakamoto.
Kumstat won a J300 tournament on the clay in Bulgaria last April, dropping just two sets, as well as making two semi finals in China, and a quarter final in Japan to finish 2024.
He will only want to improve on his performance from last year, and he might just have the advantage to do so.
Rounding out the top five seeds includes (in order) Kazakhstan’s Amir Omarkhanov (14th ranked boy in the world), Spain’s Andres Santamarta Roig (16), 16-year-old Jack Kennedy from USA (19), and also from the USA, Jagger Leach (21).
Leach is the son of former women’s world number one, Lindsay Davenport. Davenport held the number one ranking for almost two consecutive years, finishing four years as the best-ranked women’s player. She won three grand slams.
ON the girls’ side, the number six-ranked girl Jelina Vandromme of Belgium will be the one to beat.
Despite her high rank, Vandromme has never won a junior singles title, so will be out to collect her first while in Traralgon.
Last year, the 17-year-old only took part in five tournaments, making it as far as the quarter final in her final tournament of the year in Portugal. She was eliminated in the first and second rounds in the other tournaments.
The second seed, 16-year-old Wakana Sonobe from Japan may well just be her biggest competition.
Sonobe has experience in Traralgon, having competed at last year’s event at just the age of 15. In that very campaign, she reached a quarter final and was eliminated by the eventual runner-up.
Since then, she won a J500 event in Germany and reached the Final of the US Open Junior Tennis Championships, among many impressive finishes.
Rounding out the top five seeds are (in order) Serbia’s Teodora Kostovic (9th ranked girl in the world), the 15-year-old Kristina Penickova from the US (10), and the Czech Republic’s Tereza Krejcova (11).
The following six seeds are all ranked within the top 20 girls in the world, ensuring spicy match-ups set to play out in the main draw.
JUST four Australians are confirmed in the main draw before qualifying.
In the boys’ main draw Ty Host is the highest seeded Australian at number 27 (67th ranked boy in the world). Host won a J100 event last year in Johannesburg, taking his tally to four junior titles.
He is followed by none other than Cruz Hewitt, the son of Aussie great, Lleyton Hewitt. He is seeded 47th thanks to his boys’ ranking of 107.
Now just 16-years-old, Hewitt has gained much more traction compared to years previous.
He visited Traralgon last year as a wildcard entry, only to be knocked out in the first round. But this year, he looks to return will much more form and experience up his sleeve.
For the girls, 17-year-old Alana Subasic is the highest-seeded Australian girl at 23 (41st ranked girl in the world).
Subasic also competed in Traralgon last year, making it to the third round of the Junior International. That being the furthest she progressed at any tournament last year.
The final Aussie in the main draw ahead of qualifying and wildcard entries is 15-year-old Renee Alame.
Alame might just set off some fireworks, seeded at 46 due to her junior ranking of 71. She won a J100 event in Brisbane last year, setting up a year of many successes.
She too came to Traralgon, also making the third round, before heading off to Melbourne for the Australian Open Junior Championships, losing in the first round. Her Brisbane win followed that.
She made four more Finals, coming at Brisbane (again), Canberra, and Sydney (twice), as well as a semi final in Hong Kong late last year.
She is definitely one to keep an eye on.
Traralgon’s most notable champions
QUITE a few big names in global tennis got their start at the Traralgon Junior International.
Preceding the Australia Open – the first grand slam of the year, all eyes are on who could potentially be competing at the top level in years to come.
The biggest name of them all is Switzerland’s Roger Federer, who claimed the boys’ singles ITF Victorian Junior Championship, as it was then called, in 1998. That same year, Australia’s Jelena Dokic also claimed the girls’ singles title.
Federer would climb to heights that no one had reached previously, winning a whopping 20 grand slam titles over his professional career which spanned from 1998 to 2022.
He was eventually overtaken by the recently retired Spaniard, Rafael Nadal (22 grand slams) and Slovakian Novak Djokovic (24), who is still trying to become the first person to win 25 grand slams, tied on 24 with Australia’s Margaret Court.
Dokic enjoyed a 15-year professional career from 1999 to 2014, reaching as high as women’s world number four in 2002.
During the early stages of her career, she represented Yugoslavia, but after falling out of the top 10 rankings across 2003 and 2004, and going off the grid, she returned to represent Australia for the first time in five years in 2005.
She made several comebacks over her career, but was constantly set back by injury, leading to her eventual retirement in 2014. Dokic has now become quite the media personality for tennis in Australia.
Germany’s Mischa Zverev won the Traralgon Junior International in 2004 but could never really make an impact on the professional circuit. Coached by his father, Alexzander Zverev Sr, luckily for him, his little brother is just as good of a tennis player.
Ten years after his older brother won in Traralgon, Alexzander Zverev claimed the boys’ singles title, coached by his father as well. He remains currently active and has garnered far more success.
Zverev, the younger of the two, has won two grand slams, taking out the US Open in 2020, and most recently the French Open last year. As of November 2024, he was ranked world number two behind Italian Jannik Sinner.
When people say Hewitt, most people think of Lleyton. But in 2000, his little sister, Jaslyn, did what he hadn’t done before – win the Traralgon Junior International.
Despite this, it was Lleyton that had the far more impressive career. Jaslyn would only make it as high as world number 304 for her singles’ ranking, while Lleyton would become a two-time grand slam winner, and world number one in 2001.
Australia’s Nick Kyrgios won the singles event in 2013, before becoming one of the most recognisable personalities in the tennis world today.
He reached a career-high ranking of world number 13 in 2016, but as of late injuries have held him back from reaching any success. Kyrgios is hoping to return to the tennis circuit this year.
Poland’s Iga Swiatek won the Traralgon Junior International in 2017, while she was already on the Women’s ITF Circuit.
She broke onto the scene around 2020 when she cracked the top 20 world women’s rankings. Two years later, she reached world number one, holding onto that claim for 125 weeks.
Swiatek has five grand slams to her name, winning the US Open once (2022), and the French Open four times.
She is still currently ranked second, about 1100 ranking points behind Belarusian, Aryna Sabalenka.
And what have last year’s winners achieved since putting on the Akubra after winning the Traralgon Junior International?
Australia’s own Emerson Jones competed at the Junior Australian Open directly after the event, making her way to the final, only to be defeated.
That wasn’t the end of her Australian Open run, gaining wildcard entry into the main event, but the 15-year-old couldn’t make it past the first qualifying round.
Later that year, she ranked second in the ITF rankings, becoming the highest-ranked Australian since Ash Barty in 2011. She moved up one last rung to girls’ number one in September last year – the first Australian junior at the peak since Dokic in 1998.
She has competed in more junior grand slams and won more ITF circuit finals since turning 16, leading into what looks like a promising career at the top level.
The Japanese Rei Sakamoto, who took out the boys’ title at the Traralgon Junior International last year, also went on to have a successful Junior Australian Open, winning the title in three sets.
He and 2023 Traralgon Junior International winner, Federico Cina of Italy, competed together at the 2024 Junior French Open, losing the doubles final in straight sets. But at the Junior US Open, Sakamoto and Czech Republican Maxim Mrva won the doubles final in straight sets.
Now at 18-years-of-age, he has cracked into the top 500 in the men’s singles rankings following his first title at the Yokkaichi Challenger. In doing so he became the second-youngest Japanese title winner in history, aged 18 years, five months.
