Alumni Shine In Melbourne
Jack Draper pulled through three successive five set matches to reach the last 16 of this year’s Australian Open in Melbourne. Toughing out five set wins against Vukic and Kokkinakis in front of a home crowd demonstrated Jack’s fighting spirit and love for the big stage. The match up with four time Grand Slam Champion, Carlos Alcaraz proved to be a match too far as Jack was forced to retire at 7-5, 6-1 down. We hope that he is able to recover quickly and take care of himself as we all know the tennis season is long and only just beginning.
Jacob Fearnley was playing in only his second Grand Slam main draw but you wouldn’t have known it by his confident and controlled performances. He claimed a straight sets win over Nick Kyrgios and returned to victory from a set down and France’s Arthur Cazaux in the opening rounds. Jacob was defeated in the third round by second seed Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 and although it ended his Aus Open run there were certainly plenty of positives to take away, including a new career high ranking of No.77.
Emma Raducanu fought through the two opening rounds to set up a clash against world No.2 Iga Swiatek. Factoring in that this was Emma’s first tournament of the season, as a back injury had sidelined her in the lead in events, she showed grit and determination battling through matches against opponents ranked higher than her in the first two rounds. Iga played some of her best tennis to claim a 6-1, 6-0 win on Rod Laver Arena.
Katie Boulter clocked up some postive wins in the United Cup for Team GB and was coming in to the Australian Open with plenty of confidence. Katie took a three set victory over Rebecca Marino, a tricky opponent from Canada, before losing out to Veronika Kudermetova 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-2. It is great to see Katie playing at the highest level of the women’s game with a career high ranking just outside the top 20. We look forward to seeing what the 2025 season holds for her.
Jodie Burrage claimed her first ever main draw win at the Australian Open with a straight sets victory 6-2, 6-4 against Leolia Jeanjean. It was an extremely hard year for Jodie in 2024, finding herself on the sidelines again with injury and recovering from yet another surgery. Battling injury is one of the most challenging and demanding parts of being a professional athlete and after missing more than 6 months of last year’s season, it was fantastic to see Jodie back on the stage where she belongs. Although her run ended in the second round with a loss against Coco Gauff 6-3, 7-5 we are so pleased to see Jodie back on court and hope she can take so many positives away with her for the rest of the season.
Harriet Dart received a late call up to the main draw as she accepted the lucky loser spot after Marketa Vondrousova withdrew due to injury. Harriet took full advantage of the situation and beat Jana Fett 7-5, 2-6, 7-6(7). Harriet battled for over three hours through cramp and injury to get herself over the line, an example of her true fighting spirit. We are excited to follow Harriet’s journey in the 2025 season and wish her great success.
The Australian Open junior event is just starting up featuring grantees Mimi Xu, Hannah Klugman and Mark Ceban. We hope all of our grantees look up to our Alumni and take inspiration from their performances in Melbourne.
Good luck!
Photo credit : ATP Tour