Sydney, 15 October 2012 | tennis.com.au

Danielle Wagland (Gordon, NSW) and Matthew Tanza (Carlingford, NSW) clinched victory in front of a home crowd yesterday when they won the 2012 NSW Junior International ITF Grade 4 event at Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre, NSW.

Top seed Wagland defeated 2012 Junior Fed Cup representative and No.2 seed Zoe Hives (Ballarat, Vic) 6-4 2-6 6-4, collecting her second ITF junior title in five months, after winning the BNP Paribas Junior Open in Noumea, New Caledonia in June.

The 17-year-old was a finalist at last year’s tournament, just falling short to Queenslander Naiktha Bains.

“I was pleased to get the win after last year’s result. I played really well. I was striking the ball nicely and everything was going my way in the first set,” said Wagland, who is currently No.155 on the world ITF junior rankings.

Hives came back in the second set, before Wagland lifted her game.

“Zoe started making more balls in the second set. I changed up my game a little bit in the third and started to become more defensive.

“I was hammering her forehand because her backhand was really solid in the second set.  I knew I had to change something up to get it back on my advantage. I started to make more first serves towards the end of the set so I could try and hold my serve, so that helped,” she added.

Matthew Tanza made his mark on the ITF junior circuit for the first time when he defeated top seed Mitchell Pritchard (Bomaderry, NSW) 4-6 6-2 6-1 in the boys’ singles final.

“I’m feeling pretty good, it’s my first ITF junior win. It was a tight final and Mitchell played pretty well and I played pretty well,” said Tanza post match.

“I got broken on a deuce at 5-4 in the first and he was up in the second, but faded away a little bit.  The fatigue from the last week played a part and I started to play a little better.

“I served really well. My first serve percentage was pretty high. I think that was the most outstanding thing. That was where I improved the most,” Tanza said.

In 2011 Tanza won the Optus 16s National Championship and will be looking to go one better in the 18s event at December Showdown this year.

In the doubles, No. 4 seeds Yuya Ito (Glenside, SA) and Akira Santillan (Surfers Paradise, Qld) took the boys’ title over third seeds Daniel Nolan (Middle Park, Vic) and Jordan Smith (Castle Hill, NSW) 6-1 6-4 .

Hives then teamed with Anja Dokic (Tuart Hill, WA) to defeat [8] Michelle Pits (Brighton, Vic) and Olivia Tjandramulia (Rockhampton, Qld) 7-5 6-2 to take the girls’ doubles title.

The NSW Junior International concludes the Australian ITF junior circuit for another year. The calendar will start again in January at the AGL Loy Yang Traralgon International in Victoria, the lead-in event to the first junior Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open Junior Championships.