Melbourne, Australia, 23 January 2024 | Leigh Rogers

Pavle Marinkov has charged into the third round of the Australian Open boys’ singles competition for the second consecutive year.

Twelve months after achieving the feat as a wildcard ranked outside the world’s top 100, he’s now the 13th seed and feeling at home on the Grand Slam stage.

“I’d say the biggest thing tennis-wise, is that I’m willing to stay a bit more solid on the court,” the 17-year-old from Sydney noted of his biggest improvement in the past year.

“I’m not trying to take the easy way out in points. This has been a real focus of mine in this past year.

“It’s also helped to have had this experience last year as well, it’s been really good for the confidence just to know that I’m able to play at this level and go deep into the draw. Hopefully I can go even deeper.”

Marinkov sits at a career-high world No.16 in the junior rankings after progressing to the semifinals at an ITF J300 tournament in Traralgon last week.

This provided another highlight in an outstanding summer for the National Tennis Academy athlete, who also scored his biggest pro-level win against world No.118 Luca Nardi at an ATP Challenger in Canberra earlier this month.

Marinkov continued his impressive form to notch a 6-2 6-4 victory against German Diego Dedura-Palomero in second-round action today at 1573 Arena.

“It was a lot hotter out there than the last few days,” Marinkov said.

“The sun was really, really bright and made the court really hot, so I’m happy to get through because he was playing really well.

“I played him in doubles two days ago and they got the better of us, so I’m just happy I was able to play well enough to get on top.”

Marinkov joins 17-year-old Hayden Jones in the third round. This marks the first time since 2016 that two Aussies contenders have reached this stage in an Australian Open boys’ singles draw.

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Aussies in action – Australian Open

TODAY’S RESULTS
Boys’ singles, second round
[13] Pavle Marinkov (AUS) d Diego Dedura-Palomero (GER) 6-2 6-4

Boys’ doubles, second round
[5] Petr Brunclik (CZE)/Viktor Frydrych (GBR) d [WC] Jonas Hahn (AUS)/Ty Host (WC) 6-7(3) 6-1 [10-8]
Maxwell Exsted (USA)/Cooper Woestendick (USA) d [3] Hayden Jones (AUS)/Alexander Razeghi (USA) 6-3 6-2

COMING UP
Boys’ singles, third round
[13] Pavle Marinkov (AUS) v [4] Rei Sakamoto (JPN)
[16] Hayden Jones (AUS) v [3] Tomasz Berkieta (POL)

> VIEW: Australian Open 2024 boys’ singles draw

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