10 February 2023 | Tennis West

The Super 10’s national competition was back again at the Australian Open 2023 with eight players (four girls and four boys) from Western Australia were given the opportunity to attend the program.

The Super 10s is a competition for leading 10 and under aged tennis players in WA and is run nation-wide. The Super 10’s is an open competition run twice a year at the State Tennis Centre. From the initial try out day, the top 16 boys and girls are selected and split into teams of four where each team will then play each other in a weekly competition.

Super 10’s provides on court coaching provided by Tennis Australia qualified coaches, team-based competition (4 boys teams of 4 players, 4 girls teams of 4 players) and time-based scoring.

The program helps develop competitors through regular, well organised, high quality and fair competition and promotes teamwork among athletes, teams, and families. It educates parents, coaches and players on the development pathways and appropriate training volume to become a national level player.

The top four boys and girls from across the year are lucky enough to be selected to participate in the Super 10’s national competition held at Melbourne Park during the Australian Open. The WA boys included Marc Sutisna, Denby Sharpe, Nick Stoyanov and Vivek Raja. Five girls were invited over and included Raelyn Emilio, Simona Costine, Isabelle Chiew, Benita Vinciguerra and Tea Zizek from WA.

WA Talent Operations Manager Mitch Pleydell and National Development Squad Assistant Coach Charlotte Connon attended the camp with the eight athletes.

Athletes were then mixed with other competing states into teams of four which gave competitors the opportunity to meet and play with and against new athletes.

For the first time ever, WA took over two regional athletes in Tea Zizek and Denby Sharpe, both from Albany to compete in the national camp. Denby Sharpe was also part of the winning team coached by WA’s Mitch Pleydell.

The program gave athletes the opportunity to meet some of the current and former stars of the game including Samantha Stosur, Pat Rafter, Bob and Mike Bryan (The Bryan brothers) and Evonne Goolagong. Athletes were lucky enough to experience ‘money can’t buy’ off court experiences such as touring Rod Laver Arena, having a hit on centre court before the Men’s Final and toss the coin before the Men’s and Women’s singles and doubles quarter finals.

Mitch Pleydell applauded the success of the camp and the opportunity and exposure it gave to all the like-minded and talented tennis players around Australia.

“The kids learnt a lot on and off the court with experiences playing against some of the best under 10 aged players in the country as well as the ability to watch and surround themselves with professional world class players. All players benefited from meeting athletes outside of their environment as they potentially spend more time with one another playing more tournaments around Australia in the future.”