Under-the-radar Nilsson says school mates are oblivious to her AO run

Lea Nilsson is a 15-year-old lefty from suburban Stockholm.

She spends much of the year playing and practising indoors in Sweden and clay is her surface of choice.

Until this month she had never been to Australia but won one match in the pre-Australian Open junior tournament in Traralgon and then two more in the AO qualifiers.

This morning on court 17 at the Australian Open Junior Championships, she saw off the No. 7 seed Alena Kovackova, from Czechia, 6-4 1-6 6-4, in just under two hours and is now into the last 16.

It was hot and noisy - court 17 abuts the train lines taking commuters to and from downtown Melbourne - but by far the greater noise was emanating from next door where Novak Djokovic was practising before a mass of about 300 people.

“Ohhhh….,” exclaimed Nilsson when she was told about the great Serb afterwards. “I didn’t know that."

It is unlikely she was aware of anything other than the next ball coming her way such was her focus and determination to get a result. She is small compared to most other players her age in this tournament but is a fighter, scrabbling after every hit from her opponent, time and again. It is the classic controlled aggression scenario, off court she is as quiet as a mouse and polite to a fault.

“Ever since I was little I started playing with my dad, he always put the balls where I had to run for them, every ball. Yes I am pretty fast, so I think it helps me a lot,” she said of her on court persona.

The match was played and won from the baseline, booming forehands from both players, net play an anomaly. The quality was high though and Kovackova should not feel overly upset despite losing to a player ranked 143.

Coming though the qualifying competition helped enormously Nilsson said. 

“It was an advantage because I got more used to the heat and the atmosphere. I think that was a good result,” she said.

On a day with a projected temperature of 31 degrees, the early 11am start was a blessing. Not that Nilsson was unduly concerned.

“I think I can handle the heat pretty good. I just need to drink enough water.”

Astonishingly, she already has 12 years experience in the bag, taking up tennis at three-years-old after her elder brother began to play.

“It was natural for me to also play,” she said.

Milos, her coach from her hometown club Salk, in Stockholm, is travelling with her.

There is, with everyone this age, the question of school work. Nilsson comes with good English and is patently very bright, but studying has not been a priority this month. And she has a cracking get-out.

“I go to a normal school and they say if I am passing my grades then I can be away from school how much I want,” she revealed. 

School pals, sometimes, will help out and keep her up to-date with work but remain mostly oblivious to the double, and successful, life she is leading right now.

“I don’t think my school friends know about it (the Australian Open) but the tennis friends do.”

Nilsson faces Britain’s Mingge Xu, the 12th seed, in the next round.

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