Top seeds Lorenzo Musetti and Clara Tauson were crowned the Australian Open 2019 junior champions on Saturday, with Denmark’s Tauson maintaining her impressive unbeaten streak to claim the girls’ singles title, and Musetti saving a championship point before clinching a deciding 10-point tiebreak in the boy’s singles final.

The 16-year-olds both claimed their victories on Rod Laver Arena, Tauson downing Canada’s Leylah Annie Fernandez 64 63 before Musetti fought back to beat No.13 seed Emilio Nava 46 62 76(12).

Tauson and Fernandez opened the day’s action on Laver, just hours ahead of the women’s singles final between Petra Kvitova and Naomi Osaka. The Canadian No.4 seed admitted to feeling a little overawed by the grand stage as the players passed along the Walk of Champions towards the court.

“That was a huge surprise, and it was beautiful that they were able to make that happen for us juniors,” the 16-year-old said. “It was very hard to stay focused, because it was so beautiful to see the name of everyone who won this Grand Slam. It’s amazing I was able to walk down that path.”

Fernandez faced an uphill task against Tauson, who is undefeated since claiming third place at last year’s ITF Junior Masters in Chengdu. The duo had met in the final of last week’s warm-up event in Traralgon, where Tauson also prevailed in straight sets.

“I feel like it was a big court,” Tauson said, who also took time to adjust to playing on such a grand stage. “We haven't played on it, either of us, so I think both of us were nervous.

“She was playing really good in the beginning. I feel like I won because I kept fighting and try to get my emotions, keep my emotions.”

Tauson dropped the first set of the tournament 61 to Australian wildcard Anastasia Berezov, and didn’t drop another en route to the title – though she admitted she thought her unbeaten streak may well have ended in the first round at Melbourne Park.

“I wasn't expecting actually to win here after the first round, but I kept working hard and had some tough matches in the beginning. I got through it, so I'm very happy about that. The start of the year has been good for me, of course. I'm not thinking too much about if I never lose a match in juniors anymore, because I will. I'm very happy about the last 12 matches.”

Where Tauson’s route to the title started with a comeback, Musetti’s ended with one, the Italian dropping his only set of the tournament to trail Nava in the boys’ singles final.

“Today was a crazy match,” said the Italian. “The first set was really tough, second set was really good – he went down a little bit – but third set was really a fight, and I'm very happy to win my first Slam.”

Nava, also a boys’ doubles finalist at Melbourne Park, claimed the only break of the first set, only for Musetti to storm back in the second, winning four games in succession to send the match into a decider.

With no break points in the final set, the title would be decided on a 10-point tiebreak. It was Musetti who reached championship point first, Nava rallying brilliantly to save three in succession before holding his own at 12-11. From there, however, Musetti rattled off three points on the spin, dropping to the court when the American sent a final forehand long.

“I was not thinking, I was just playing – living every point,” Musetti said of the final few points. “It was a fantastic tiebreak. Also, Emilio played really good and he saved, like, three match points. Yeah, it was a fantastic tiebreak. Match point, it was unbelievable. I had a lot of pressure since the first rounds, but I got a lot of experience last year in New York, so I knew how to manage the pressure and the feelings of the final.”

Musetti ran into six-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic on his way out of Rod Laver Arena, exchanging a few words in Italian with the world No.1, who will face Rafael Nadal in Sunday’s men’s singles final.

“He just said congratulations,” Musetti said. “He knew that I lost in the final in New York, so he told me, ‘You have a good mental trainer.’  I just said, I learned from you, and I gave him good luck for the final. Just these words, I really enjoyed from Novak.”