22 February 2016 | Tennis West

The National Academy – Perth athletes kicked of 2016 with an impressive start to the year. After a strong showing at the Australian Championships in December, the team was straight back in to training that helped springboard some positive results in January.

Eighteen-year-old Maddison Inglis, after winning the Australian Open Playoff had her first taste of main draw WTA tennis at the Hobart International, in both singles and double losing two tough first round matches. Inglis then went on to play her maiden Australian Open where she lost to Ekaterina Makarova the tournaments 21st seed 6-3 6-0. Next for Inglis was the Australian Open Junior Championships, after losing a tough 1st round singles encounter Inglis teamed with Victorian Jamiee Fourlis to make a strong doubles run to the semi-finals, this comes on the back of her semi-finals doubles appearance US Open in September.

After celebrating his eighteenth birthday in January, National Academy athlete Scott Jones had one of his most successful summers of tennis on the ITF Junior Tour. The highlights of his summer were defeating top 10 ITF ranked junior Youssef Hossam at the Grade 1 ITF in Traralgon and making the semi-finals of the Australian Open Junior Championships partnering Max Purcell of New South Wales.

Fourteen-year-old Tristan Schoolkate has captured his first ITF junior points on his recent tour of New Zealand. Playing in ITF level 3 and 4 events, Schoolkate progressed through qualifying in his first two events to secure his first points. Schoolkate will look to continue his rise on the ITF tour of the coming years.

Finally, Alex Jago has resigned from the position of National Academy Manager to return home to Melbourne to take on a new role as National Talent Development Manager. Tennis West and the National Academy Perth team would like to thank Alex for his time and wish him the best in his new role.