By ADEM SARICAOGLU
IT’S FAIR to say 2013 has been big for rising Sydenham tennis star, Lucas Vuradin.
Vuradin, 14, recently came home from New South Wales a national champion in his age group and also collected a number of good results in other tournaments during his trip up north.
Earlier this year the Maribyrnong College Sports Academy student also had the honour of representing Australia abroad, competing in a handful of tournaments in Europe against some of the world’s best juniors.
Vuradin said he relished the opportunity to experience first-hand facing quality opponents on the other side of the globe.
“It was such a new experience because I never played against the European kids before and they’re much more experienced than the kids down here,” Vuradin said.
“Their game styles are much more different as well and I just got to know different game styles, different players and different types of courts as well.”
The best of all his recent achievements, however, has been acquiring the number one national ranking.
“It was pretty hard to believe at the start, because out of all these years of training and working hard and stuff like that, I’ve finally got to number one in Australia,” Vuradin said.
“I’m just happy to be where I am now and I’m just trying to keep that spot going for as long as possible.”
However, Vuradin has been forced to halt his progress since finishing up his recently busy schedule.
The gun right-hander is expecting to sit out tournaments for at least the next month after succumbing to bone stress in his left foreman.
Vuradin said he likely picked up the injury after playing for three weeks straight in Sydney.
“I was just over-playing it, really, and to recover from it I’m just taking two weeks off,” Vuradin explained.
“I’m currently in my second week of not hitting any backhands at all, so at the start of (this) week I’ll start getting back into it.
“But it probably won’t recover for about another three or four weeks.”
Vuradin hopes to one day go pro and crack the top 100.
