15 September 2011 | Tennis ACT
By: Edwin Smith
ACT juniors have dominated many of the major events at the ACT Canberra Junior Open which was held over the weekend at the National Sports Centre in Lyneham.
Evonne Goolagong Cawley helped boost the tournaments profile by visiting the competition, which concluded on Tuesday.
Cawley came to check out proceedings after taking a special interest the progress of Adrian Foster, who reached the semi finals of the 10’s and under boys singles.
On the results side of things, local favourites Aaron Porrecca and Sanjana Bidarkal took out the top event, the 16 and under boys and girls singles respectively, both living up to their number 1 seeding.
Porrecca, a Canberra local from Ngunnawal, beat Robert Baddeley of Narooma 6-4 6-3 in the final, while Bidarkal, from Palmerston, beat another Canberra local Sarina Kang 6-2 2-6 6-3 in a topsy-turvy final.
ACT High Performance coach Todd Larkham commended both players for their tournament.
“The best effort is probably from Sanjana, beating Imogen (Clews) in three sets to win the tournament, it’s a really good effort,” Larkham said after Bidarkal beat Kang in the final.
“It’s also a great effort from Aaron to persevere over the years to win his first ever Optus junior title,” Larkham said.
Porrecca has reached 5 finals in previous Optus Junior Tour events, and said it was a relief to win a final.
“It was great to get a win in my last 16’s event, it’s the last chance I have to play in this age group so it was really good,” Porrecca said.
On the doubles side, Imogen Clews and Sarina Kang teamed up to beat Annie Constance and Sabrina Toufexis in an all-Canberra first and second place in the girls 16 and under doubles, while in the boys it was Baddeley who teamed up with Charlie Young to defeat local hopes Michael Bruen and Amery Clews 6-4 7-5 in the final of the 16 and under boys doubles. Baddeley said after the final that he drew on inspiration from Sam Stosur, who earlier that morning won the US Open title.
The two biggest events participation-wise of the tournament came from the 12 and 14 boys events, which both had a draw of 64 kids.
Dimitri Morogiannis, from Torrens, competed in the under 12’s event and was another outstanding performer from the ACT. He came through the draw of 64, winning 4 matches along the way, before facing off against Codey Gunn from Victoria in the final. After three tight sets, it was Morogiannis who came through 6-7 6-1 6-1, cementing his status as one of the top juniors to watch in ACT.
Morogiannis then teamed up with Julian Pangagopoulos to win the 12s and under boys doubles, after they beat Codey Gunn and Joe Myers 6-2 6-4 in the final.
Todd Larkham, who also coaches Morogiannis, praised the performance of one of his brightest talents.
“It was a great effort from Dimitri, he won the tournament last week in Parkes and has backed it up with another final. He is travelling really well,” Larkham said.
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