16 January 2017 | Todd Larkham

Alison Bai has had her best ever result in the Australian Open wildcard playoff event, reaching the semi-final round, going down in a very close match to Abbie Myers (NSW) in three sets.

Alison has received a main draw wildcard into the Australian Open doubles event with partner Lizette Cabrera (QLD).

Bai and Cabrera are set to go up against Anika Beck (GER) and Anastasija Sevastova (LAT) in the first round of the doubles draw. If the duo win they will go on to play the winner of top doubles seeds Caroline Garcia (FRA) and Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) v Belinda Bencic (SUI) and Ana Konjuh (CR).

View the AO 2017 women’s doubles draw here.

World No.14 [14] Nick Kyrgios set to play unseeded world No.81 Gastao Elias (POR) this afternoon at Hisense Arena not before 6:30pm. All the best Nick.

View the AO 2017 men’s singles draw here.

There were some excellent results from ACT players at the December National Titles in Melbourne. Leading the way was 13-year-old Annerly Poulos, who played some great tennis to reach the final of the 14/u girls singles and doubles events. Annerly played a great match but went down to Queensland star Olivia Gadecki in three close sets.

Annerly teamed up with Tasmanian Charlotte Ingram to reach her first ever Nationals doubles final. It was Annerly’s 3rd 14/u National singles runner-up in 2016, in a year she also won an ITF junior event and represented Australia twice. Congratulations to Annerly on an outstanding 2016.

In the 18/u event, ACT National Academy scholarship holder Kaitlin Staines unfortunately had to withdraw with injury prior to the event starting. However, her training partner Lisa Mays won three matches to qualify for the main draw round robin stage. 16-year-old Mays lost all three of her round robin matches, but gained great experience and played some fantastic tennis.

Lisa then backed up the 18’s form with a quarter-final appearance at the 16/u Nationals singles event. She then teamed with NSW player Gaby Da Silva Flick to win the 16/u doubles event. Congratulations to Lisa for an excellent December showdown and for winning your first ever National title!

Also having her best ever Nationals was 13-year-old Ashleigh Simes. Ash reached round of 16 in the 14/u girls singles, but had several good wins in her playoff draw and finished the event in 11th position (out of 64 entrants) – her best ever result at a Nationals title.

In the 12/u and 14/u National teams event, the ACT was represented by both boys and girls teams. The ACT players gained a lot of experience during the four days.

A big thanks to local coaches Todd Larkham, Alun Jones, Brett Lennard and Nathan Price for managing and looking after the players during the event.

Congratulations to all ACT players who competed at the December Showdown National Titles.

ACT players who also featured in the event include Alyssa Simoncini, Maddison Sutherland, Daniel Zhang, Jimmy Fu, Erik Chen, Charlie Snow, Daniel McDonald, Sophie McDonald, Dimi Morogiannis, Jamieson Nathan and Baden Arellano-Gerard.