Oceania Closed Junior Championships(OCJC) 2022

Pat O’Rourke writes:

“After being cancelled for the past three years the 19^th edition of the Oceania Closed Junior Championships was held in Australia at the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre in its normal August week. All previous events had been held in Lautoka but the pandemic situation led to this being the first in Australia.

Australian players dominated the events winning both boys and girls singles. In another first brother and sister Hayden and Emerson Jones won the  boys and girls singles respectively. Hayden was second seed in the boys but his younger sister was unseeded and beat the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th seeds on her road to the title.

The doubles titles were won by New Zealand/Australian combinations. In the boys top seeds Charlie Camus (AUS) and Jack Loutit (NZL) cruised to the boys title while Vivian Yang (NZL) and  Lily Fairclough (AUS)  were too good for Sasha Situe (NZL) and Lily Taylor (AUS) in winning the girls doubles.

Despite the travel difficulties a good contingent from Pacific nations took part. Saoirse Breen (FIJ) won a round in both the girls singles and doubles while Maka Ofati (TUV) reached the boys doubles quarterfinals with his Australian partner with two good wins over higher rated opponents before falling to the fourth seeds. Storm Cornish (FIJ) and Zachary Sands (VAN) continued on their good form from the Fiji ITF events winning their first round doubles before going down to the second seeds.

Thank you to Tennis Australia, especially Isabelle Gemmel and Francis Soyer, for running the tournament this year and to Tennis NSW for making their outstanding venue available.