TENNIS
TRARALGON JUNIOR INTERNATIONAL
By TOM HAYES
ONCE again, the Traralgon Junior International has lived up to the hype it brings to the region, with yet another enthralling week of competition.
Hundreds of teenage sensations, along with their coaches and families, and local spectators walked through the gates of the Traralgon Tennis Association to be a part of the 32nd AGL Loy Yang Traralgon Junior International.
Competition ran from Wednesday, January 8, beginning with two days of qualifiers, ahead of the main draw’s commencement on Friday, January 10.
On the sixth and final day of main draw competition, everything came down to four finals – boys’ and girls’ singles, and boys’ and girls’ doubles.
Eventually, just six of the hundreds of budding tennis stars finished their Traralgon travels with the famous Akubra, for winning their respective tournament.
Within just the first week alone, action was prominent from the get-go, with top seeds falling in both the boys’ and girls’ singles tournament, paving the way for an underdog to write their own story.
Even without winning the tournament, the exposure and learnings they might gain from such experience will only be of benefit to them.
Take a look at Russian star Mirra Andreeva for example. At just 15-years-old in 2023, she came runner-up in the girls’ singles, before winning the girls’ doubles event hours later. Fast forward two years, and nothing has stopped her.
She’s currently ranked inside the top 20 women in the world, and was the 14th seed at the Australian Open, at just 17-years-old.
So far in her short professional career, she has already shown she has what it takes to compete with the best, and potentially be the best one day, only going to show that there are far more storylines yet to be written.
Even last year’s girls’ champion, Australia’s Emerson Jones earnt a wildcard entry into the 2025 Australian Open, aged just 16.
Fashionably, the weather was an issue yet again, and despite the tournament being played in the middle of the Australian summer, you can never discount a downpour or two during the week-long event.
On the day of the finals, Wednesday, January 15, play was originally set to start at 4.30pm, but due to incoming rain, the start was shifted to midday.
Despite best efforts to navigate the incoming rain, delays were still in course, as the finals didn’t properly start until after 2pm.
Nonetheless, the Traralgon Tennis Association was able to crown their champions at an appropriate hour, unlike year’s gone past where weather postponed games that finished closer to midnight.
Alas, the Traralgon Tennis Association put on another fantastic show, this year adding more for players and the community to do.
A Family Fun Fest was introduced on Friday, January 10, which involved stalls of all kinds, an animal show, inflatable tennis, and a pickleball come-and-try.
The following day, cricket legend, and tennis and golf enthusiast, Lord Ian Botham graced the Traralgon Tennis Association for its corporate dinner, which saw the function room filled to the brim.
Smooth-moving Swiss dominates
SWISS, one-handed backhand, winner of the Traralgon Junior International. Does that remind you of anyone?
No, it’s not Roger Federer. In fact, it’s the new boys’ champion of Traralgon, Henry Bernet.
The 17-year-old from Switzerland took out the boys’ singles title at the AGL Loy Yang Traralgon Junior International last week on a wet Wednesday, January 15.
Following a crazy first week of the event which saw many of the top seeds eliminated, Bernet rose as the eighth seeded boy to earn the world-famous Akubra. He flew under the radar so-much-so, that he won all matches without dropping a set.
After advancing from the third round, it was looking as though Bernet would face number one seed, Jan Kumstat from Czech Republic, but he was bundled out by Swede, William Rejchtman Vinciguerra.
Bernet passed with flying colours through to the final with the straight-sets quarter final win over Vinciguerra, which prompted another straight-sets victory in the semi final over seventh seed Oskari Paldanius from Finland.
Making a charge on the other side of the bracket was the unseeded Russian, Egor Pleshivtsev.
He made an unlikely finals appearance, knocking out many highly touted opponents, including second seed Amir Omarkhanov from Kazakhstan in the first round.
In the quarter finals, Pleshivtsev overcame fifth seed Jagger Leach (USA) in a third-set tiebreak, before swiftly dispatching another US product, 10th seed, and reigning doubles champion, Max Exsted in the semi final in straight sets.
Thus, the final was set between an emerging Swiss and a Russian underdog.
With both boys vying for the title, it was Bernet who flinched first and took charge of the match.
The Swiss international was first to break the serve of Pleshivtsev, doing so on his first attempt. Bernet quickly made inroads to secure the first set, going 3-0 up.
Pleshivtsev finally got going during his next service games enduring longer rallies, winning his next two, but so did Bernet, as the Swiss youngster closed in on the first set, up 5-2.
Bernet continued to run hot as he closed out the first set in style by breaking Pleshivtsev again to take a 1-0 set lead over the Russian.
Bernet was in complete control, and turned on the afterburners in the second set, displaying many more of his skills to the Traralgon crowd, which shared their appreciation.
A point to notice was Bernet’s one-handed backhand, which had glimpses of Federer, as it became more and more effective with every point he won.
Pleshivtsev appeared to steady, despite the skilful prowess of Bernet.
Each won their first two service games, looking as if the second set might prove to be a test for both.
It would turn out to be a test for one, that being Pleshivtsev again, as Bernet broke his serve again, after holding his own to move 4-2 up.
And just like that he had a major advantage, just a couple of service games from the title.
He moved within one game of the title after winning his service game.
Pleshivtsev valiantly held his own serve despite the hunger shown by Bernet, and even though he had cut the lead in the second set to 5-3, there was no coming back at this stage.
Bernet took out the following game to claim the title, completing the tournament without dropping a set, 6-2, 6-3.
As he became champion, it must be noted that he is the first boy from Switzerland to win the Traralgon Junior International since Federer, and some of the similarities were uncanny.
Belgian the best in class
DOMINATION is how to accurately describe Belgium’s Jeline Vandromme’s road to being crowned as the girls’ singles champion at the Traralgon Junior International.
She was so dominant in Traralgon that the first seed claimed the Akubra without dropping a single set, despite the ups and downs of each match.
Her semi final match-up against China’s Yihan Qu was one of her quicker ones, winning with ease to advance to the final, 6-1, 6-2.
Waiting for her in the final on the other side of the bracket was the 15-year-old unseeded French international, Ksenia Efremova.
She had quite the run herself, knocking over eighth seed Czech, Vendula Valdmannova in three sets, before another thrilling three-set win over the 12th seed American, Thea Frodin.
She was faced with another uphill battle when coming up against another American, Annika Penickova in the quarter finals, getting through after another three sets, before finally catching a break on her way to the final.
Her semi final match against ninth-seed Brit, Hannah Klugman had all the hype to be one of the matches of the tournament.
But during the first set when Efremova was up 6-5, Klugman was forced to retire due to injury, advancing the French international into the final, where she waited for Vandromme.
In a crazy match that saw countless breaks of serve, it’s incredible that this match didn’t last any longer than it did. Within the first four games of the first set, both girls had broken each other’s serve once each, leaving some questions in the air as to who will do it next, and will it be a vital break.
It was the first seed Vandromme who made that move first, breaking after holding her own serve, gaining some momentum as she went two games clear, 4-2 up in the first set.
But back on serve, Efremova was not going to back down from a fight easily, as the 15-year-old showed some grit to break serve again, serving for a chance to level things up again in the first set.
But her inability to hold her serve only fell into the favour of Vandromme, who broke yet again to move to a 5-3 advantage, just one game from the first set.
She pounced on the opportunity when it presented itself, serving successfully to claim the first set, 6-3.
Not to be discouraged, the 15-year-old was clearly outsized by her first seed opponent, but to her respect she was showing glimpses of potential points of difference in the future, highlighted by her speed.
Efremova started the second set on serve, and held a service match which was almost the rarer of the two outcomes at this rate.
But the hype was short-lived, as Vandromme saw the victory in her sights and beelined for that outcome. Vandromme won the next three games, holding serve, breaking Efremova again, then holding her serve for a second time to go 3-1 up in the second set.
Just when Efremova had the chance to pull some of the momentum back in her direction, she stumbled once again as Vandromme’s class began to steal the show. The first seed broke again to move three games clear of the French international, just two games from victory.
Hoping to move 5-1 up, with Vandromme on serve, with everything behind her, she seemed destined to storm home from here. But Efremova still wasn’t showing signs of giving up.
The French youngster rallied to pull 0-40 ahead in Vandromme’s service match, hoping to throw another spanner into the works. Vandromme just could not be defeated from here.
She climbed back to deuce, got an advantage, then won the game to put all doubts aside.
Now 5-1 up, Vandromme indeed stormed home to win the final game, breaking yet another serve, to see herself crowned with the girls’ title, 6-3, 6-1.
Twins claim doubles crown
THE exciting part of doubles tennis means twice as much talent on court. That was certainly the case during the 2025 Traralgon Junior International doubles finals.
The boys’ doubles final was a case of first versus second seed. The first seeds consisted of Great Britain’s Oliver Bonding and USA’s Jagger Leach, who faced second seeded pair Maxwell Exsted from the US and Czech Republic’s Jan Kumstat.
Leach and Bonding were seeded both fifth and sixth respectively in the singles, while Kumstat and Exsted were seeded first and 10th in the singles, meaning four top-10 seeds shared the court at the same time.
As expected, a one versus two match-up was always going to be close.
Bonding and Leach took the first set 6-3, but in return, Exsted and Kumstat restored parity by winning the second set 7-5.
With everything tied up going into the final set, the Traralgon crowd sure was getting what they were looking for.
Not only was it a final set showdown, but it went to a tie-break. It would eventually be the Bonding-Leach pairing that would take the crown, winning the tie-break 10-4, denying Exsted of claiming back to back doubles titles in Traralgon.
The girls’ doubles final still had plenty of talent on display, and those in attendance would have been in awe of the ability on display.
On one side of the court was Serbian Teodora Kostovic (girls’ singles second seed) with Romanian Anamaria Federica Oana. Facing them was a set of 15-year-old American twins, Annika and Kristina Penickova – who were the third seeded girls’ doubles partnership.
Funnily enough, in the Penickova twins’ run, they had to overcome the Australian sister duo of Renee and Rianna Alame in the second round, only getting past in a third-round tie-break.
But it was smooth sailing for the Penickova twins from there, winning their remaining games in straight sets, including the final.
They overcame Kosotovic and Oana 6-3, 6-2 to take out the Traralgon doubles title. The question begs: they must be the first set of twins to win a doubles tournament at the Traralgon Junior International?
Last year the twins were compared to former American tennis giants Serena and Venus Williams, as the next big sister pairing to climb the ranks.
Despite the similarities and differences, the twins certainly have much to look forward to if they are winning titles together at 15 years of age.
