Melbourne VIC, Australia, 6 December 2017 | Luke Dennehy

Victorian No.1 seed Matthew Dellavedova survived a three-set cliff hanger at the 18/u Australian Championships on Wednesday to remain undefeated in the event at Melbourne Park.

Dellavedova did enough to hang on against fellow Victorian Josh Charlton, winning 6-7(1) 7-5 7-5 to finish atop group A in the round-robin stage of the tournament.

He came back from 5-3 down in the third set to win the tightly-contested match.

> DECEMBER SHOWDOWN: live scores, schedule & draws

“I was really happy to get through it,” he said. “I played Josh just a couple of years ago, and he has improved out of sight.

“I think it’s always tough playing a left hander. He played really well which made it very difficult and it came down to the wire and it could have gone either way.”

Dellavedova said he was happy with his third-set recovery, and he believes his year of hard work assisted him in the closing stages.

“I had a big year; I spent about five months in Europe, so I think in those moments, you remember back to the work you have done,” he said.

Dellavedova joins Bernard Nkomba (NSW), and two qualifiers – Moerani Bouzige (QLD) and Joshua Spaull (VIC) – as first-placed finishers in the group stage of the tournament.

The knockout stage of the 18/u boys and girls singles starts on Thursday, with eight players left in each field.

In the girls event, Destanee Aiava and Jaimee Fourlis continued their strong form.

Neither have dropped a set on their way to three wins from three outings and move into the knock-out stages having finished on top of their round-robin groups.

The fight for the wildcard into the main draw of the Australian Open woman’s singles tournament will be hotly contested, with Gabriella Da Silva-Fick (NSW) and Alexandra Bozovic (NSW) also producing strong performances to top their respective groups.

In the 14/u Australian Championships, the finals are set.

Cooper White (VIC) and Casey Hoole (QLD), the No.1 and No.2 seeds, will play off for the boys’ title in the boys while Anastasia Berezov (NSW) and Annerly Poulos (ACT), also the top two seeds, have progressed to the girls’ final.

All events this week at Melbourne Park are part of the December Showdown, with hundreds of matches scheduled in a huge fortnight of tennis leading into the Australian Open.