Australian Junior Open begins with a cracking opening day in Bendigo

The 2022 Australian Junior Open is officially underway in Bendigo with over 160 junior players from across the country and a handful from abroad coming together for the four-day tournament.

With old friends reuniting or seeing for each other for the first time since pre-COVID-19, the atmosphere was buzzing at Bendigo Squash Centre as the squash community came together. 

Speaking with twin brothers Will and James Slade, they were both excited to be back playing on the national stage once again.

"I feel really happy we can compete on a more broader scale because it's mostly just been between States with tournaments and a lot of uncertainty but I'm glad we can play everyone and see each other after a long time," James said. 

"It's good to see everyone is coming back after so long," Will said. "We have 150 to 160 kids here, it's good to see people back...to make some new friends and see some old ones."

Both the brothers had great results on the opening day, with two wins in the bag it has set them up for quarter-finals tomorrow (10 April). However, it wasn't without a few nervous moments as James recalled. 

"My first match was a bit of a slow start, a bit of nerves because this is the biggest tournament in a long time that I've played but after that I felt pretty good and my second match, I thought I played well so I feel pretty confident in myself," he said. 

Will said he also felt the nerves. 

"As the match progressed I started working in and then in my second match was about to start I felt ready to be back on court and play."

It was the usual, bright and early start as the matches got underway, but as the day continued things begun to become more spicy with some unbelievable matches on court. 

The match of the day came from the Under 19 Boy's match on court 2, where Andre Lynn almost suffered a surprise defeat at the hands of the unseeded James Nicholas. In a game that almost lasted an hour, the no.6 seed was 2-1 down he battled through to take the next two sets in a tiring 11-5, 5-11, 10-12, 11-7, 11-9 victory and set him up for a quarter-finals match. 

Another hard fought win came courtesy of another U19 Boy's match where Chris Pon and Jay Vaknalli battled it out for 66 minutes. Drawing quite the crowd to court 4, the match had gone game-to-game with both player's pulling out all the stops. Even as it looked like Pon had it in the bag being 8-2 then 10-5 up, Vaknalli came roaring back to level it at match point. In the end and with some tense rallies, Pon was able to take the win. 

Over in the girl's matches, Elizabeth Wang, the no.1 seed in the U11's has been enjoying her Australian Junior Open experience so far. Winning her first and only game of the day 3-0, Wang believed her lob serves are where she shines.

With hopes of taking the U11 Girl's title for a second consecutive year, Wang knows what she has to do to achieve her goal.

"Maybe I need to keep on doing what I'm doing," Wang said. 

In the U17 and U19 Girl's, the stage is set for the semi-finals. While the top four seeds in the U19's all still have a chance of taking out the title, in the U17 there were two surprises with both no.1 Sophie Simpson and no.4 seed Romisa Jalaliasl both suffering defeats to Queensland Hannah O'Toole and South Australia's Katlyn Hall respectively. 

The Australian Junior Open will continue Sunday 10 April from 9am AEST.

Catch all the action through the livestream on Cluch.tv (Court 1 only).

To find the full results and schedule click here.