The Referee for both these events, Pat O’Rourke, writes that ” Two J60 events on the ITF Junior tour were held at the Regional Tennis Centre in Lautoka in October. Entries numbers were down compared to the J30 events in the more popular time of July but the standard of the top players was higher. There was good international representation with a large contingent from Australia and a sprinkling from countries in Asia as well as the Pacific. Notably there were no players from New Zealand with the events being placed directly after the three-week series there.
Week one semifinals featured a good cross-section of countries represented with some excellent matches. In the girls there were two players from Australia, one from Japan and one from China. In the end top seed Ava-Monet Sycamore (AUS) and Peien Deng (CHN) won through to contest the final which lasted nearly three hours before Deng triumphed 63 57 62. The boys singles semifinals featured two Australian players, one from Hong Kong and one from Canada. The final was played between Max Wong (HKG), who won the Fiji J30 event in August and Australian Rohan Hazratwala. Wong started strongly taking the first set but Hazratwala then took control winning 26 62 62. The doubles events were dominated by Australian teams with Ava-Monet Sycamore and Jizelle Sibai winning the girls doubles and Cruz Hewitt and Rohan Hazratwala taking the boys.
With Peien Deng not playing the second week Australian girls dominated throughout. Sycamore lost another marathon final this time to her doubles partner Jizelle Sibai 61 67(1) 76(5). The match lasted almost 3.5 hours and featured a dramatic final few games and tiebreaker. Sycamore and Sibai again won the doubles. The boys finals were both upsets. Fifth seed Elijah Dikkenberg (AUS) upset week one winner Hazratwala in two tightly contested sets 62 76(4) in the boys singles final. The boys doubles final was a crushing win for second seeds Max Wong (HKG) and Fanming Meng (CHN) 62 62 over the week one winners Hewitt and Hazratwala.There was success for a number of Pacific players across the two weeks. Mehetia Boosie (PYF) reached the R16 in singles and QF of doubles with Grace Debalevu (FIJ) both weeks to be the best performed Pacific girl. Storm Cornish (FIJ) unfortunately had the same draw both weeks reaching the singles QF where he lost to top seed Cruz Hewitt. He was a doubles semi-finalist both weeks with his Australian partner. Grace Debalevu and Hiva Kelley(PYF) reached the R16 in singles one week and Kelley combined with Fintan Molbaleh (VAN) to reach the doubles QF in week one.
