The Referee of the Oceania Closed Junior Championships, Pat O’Rourke writes that “Australian players dominated all events at the 14th Annual Oceania Closed Junior Championships played on the newly resurfaced courts at the Regional Tennis Centre in Lautoka in the first week of August.
Blake Ellis, a member of the Australian Junior Davis Cup team in 2015, was unseeded in the boys singles but went right through the draw without dropping a set to take the title. In the final he played compatriot and top seed Scott Jones and used his serve and power to dominate the match winning 6-2 6-3. Ellis also combined with Jones to claim the boys doubles over fourth seeded Australian pairing of Moerani Bouzige and Matthew Romios 6-2 7-5
The girls singles was won by Jaimee Fourlis who will represent Australia at the Junior Fed Cup finals in Madrid in September. Fourlis was totally dominant in the final beating surprise finalist Violet Apisah (PNG) 6-1 6-0. Her toughest match came in the quarterfinals where she beat fifth seed Rosie Cheng (NZL) in two sets. In an all Australian girls doubles final Fourlis and partner Baijing Lin just got through against second seeds Selina Turulja and Nicloe Kraemer 6-0 5-7 10-5.
Violet Apisah was the standout player from the Pacific nations reaching the doubles semi-finals as well as the singles finals. No other Pacific players won main draw singles matches but Larry Magalasin (ASA), Graham Mani (SOL) and Terry Rush (FSM) all had wins over Australian or New Zealand players in the boys consolation event. Vienna Kumar and Patricia Apisah (PNG) won matches in the girls consolation.
A mixed doubles event was run on the last two days and this proved popular and competitive. Australians Kaitlin Staines and Thomas Bosancic won an entertaining final over Catherine Kreuger (AUS) and Ajeet Rai (NZL) 4-1 5-4 (3)”