 Photographer: Corinne Dubreuil
Date: 26 Jan 2008 |  Photographer: Corinne Dubreuil
Date: 26 Jan 2008 |  Photographer: Corinne Dubreuil
Date: 26 Jan 2008 |  Photographer: Corinne Dubreuil
Date: 26 Jan 2008 |  Photographer: Corinne Dubreuil
Date: 26 Jan 2008 |  Photographer: Corinne Dubreuil
Date: 26 Jan 2008 |  Photographer: Corinne Dubreuil
Date: 27 Jan 2008 |
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| 26 Jan 2008 - Melbourne Park - Eleanor Preston |  Related Audio |
| Tomic scores fairytale Australia Day win |
 An Interview with Australian Open girls' champion Aranxta Rus (MP3 format)
An interview with Bernard Tomic (MP3 format)
 
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Fifteen-year-old Australian Bernard Tomic became the youngest ever boy to win a junior grand slam title when he beat Chinese Tapei’s Tsung-Hua Yang 46 76 60 to take the Australian Open boys’ title. He joined the Netherlands’ Arantxa Rus on the 2008 Australian Open honour roll. Rus beat Australian Jessica Moore 63 64 to win the girls’ title.
Tomic came from a set and a break down to seal victory on the 15,000-seater Rod Laver Arena to emulate his compatriot Brydan Klein, who won the 2007 boys’ championship. At fifteen years and three months, Queenslander Tomic is two months younger than American Donald Young was when he won the 2005 Australian Open. Yang made a little history of his own by making the final, though. He is only the second player from Chinese Tapei to ever make junior grand slam final. Yang’s compatriot Yeu-Tzuoo Wang was runner-up to Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic (who, coincidentally, took Roger Federer to five sets in the men’s Australian Open this year) in the 2001 boys’ Australian Open final.
Both Tomic and Yang appear to relish the occasion, treating the crowd to an array of winners and appearing to feel at home on one of tennis’s biggest stages. They even made use of HawkEye line-calling technology to successfully challenge calls. Tomic paid for his passivity in the first set, with Yang appearing more willing to take points on and seize the initiative, but the Australian raised his game in the second. After exchanging breaks with Yang, Tomic took a firm grip on the second set tiebreaker and did not relinquish control from then on. “Firstly I’d like to thank my parents and family and friends for coming out here,” said Tomic after picking up his winners’ trophy. “Secondly I’d like to thank the crowd for watching our juniors. I don’t think I could have pulled it off in the second set without you guys, so thanks.”
While the boys’ event was put on the Australian Open’s main showcourt, the girls’ final was also given a prestigious venue when it was scheduled for the Margaret Court Arena, which is named after one of Australia’s most accomplished female players.
Rus, who has just turned 17, also won the ITF Grade 1 event in Nottinghill last week and brought that hot streak of form to Melbourne’s Plexicushion courts. Despite the fact that Rus had never got past the second round of a junior grand slam, Moore could do little to stop her charge towards the title. “I'm very happy that I win this. This the first time I play here in Australia, so I'm very happy,” said Rus, whose march to victory was temporarily halted by an Australia Day fighter plane fly-past. “I think I will always think about it, that I won a Grand Slam in juniors. I start good today. My serve was always good. My serve was better and my forehand and backhand was also good. So everything what I do today was good. The only time I was nervous was when I served for the match at 5-4 but not before. I don’t know why – I just don’t get nervous playing matches.”
17-year-old Moore set aside her own disappointment to pay tribute to her conqueror after the match. “She served unreal today, and I couldn't match it. I thought I served well, but probably not well enough. I needed to hold to stay in the match. She just kept a lot of pressure on me today, so give credit to her for that,” said Moore. “It was pretty deceiving, her serve. She could hit it very hard, but at the same time she could take the pace off it and place it well. I could never pick where she was going. It was good enough to force an error out of me, so I could never put pressure on her when I was returning, and she could probably tell. There weren’t really many close games on her serve, which made it hard for me to put pressure on her. I think she's going to be a good player.”
Moore will have little time to dwell on her defeat. She headed for the airport almost immediately after the match to join her Australian Fed Cup by BNP Paribas team-mates Casey Dellacqua, Rennae Stubbs and Alicia Molik, who were on their way to Thailand, where Moore will make her debut for her country. Moore was part of Australia’s Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas team in 2006.
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