Captained by former Fed Cup player Bryanne Crabb (Fairlight, NSW), Canberra girl Annerly Poulos, accompanied by Lara Walker (Brisbane, Qld) and Anastasia Berezov (Terry Hills, NSW) won the ITF World Junior Tennis Asia / Oceania Final Qualifying event in Bangkok to secure a place in the coveted World ITF Junior Tennis Finals to be held in Czech Republic later this year.
Australia entered the qualifying event against tough competition from 16 nations including China, Japan, Sri Lanka, India, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Jordan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand and Uzbekistan, with the top four placed teams earning qualification for the World Junior Tennis Finals.
Despite a loss to China (1-2) in the round robin stages, Australia overcame some tough opponents during the week-long event including Korea (2-0) and Thailand (2-1) in the final playoffs, as well as Uzbekistan (3-0) and Sri Lanka (3-0) in the round robin stages.
Crabb was delighted with a series of impressive performances from her young charges.
“The girls all handled the conditions extremely well and worked well as a team,” she said.
“Last year, the U/14 girls just missed out on qualifying for the World Finals, so it’s a fantastic outcome for the team this year.
“We came in with a positive mind frame, but it’s amazing to be able to come out finishing on top.
“All credit to these girls, they worked fantastically as a team and displayed extreme work ethic in the tough conditions over here, so fingers crossed we can back it up in August.”
The top four teams from the qualifier progressed to the Finals in August, meaning Australia will be joined by fellow qualifiers Korea, China and Thailand.
There are five qualification zones for the ITF World Junior Tennis finals – Africa, North/Central America, South America, Europe and Asia/Oceania – with the top 16 nations earning a place in the Finals, which will be held in Prostejov, Czech Republic, between 7-12 August 2017.
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