By Michael Esposito
POINT Cook tennis sensation Brigitte Beck showed she could match it with the older girls after winning her first round of the 16s national championships, before going down to third seed Ebony Panoho, Australia’s 47th ranked woman, 7-6, 6-7, 6-7, last week.
Beck, coming off a championship victory in the national 14s singles titles, and partner Andrea Diksoavljevic also made it to the quarter finals of the 16s doubles championship, before going down to second seeds Abbie Myers and Storm Sanders in straight sets.
The 14-year-old described her recent Optus 14s Australian title victory as her biggest achievement yet.
Beck has rocketed to number one in the rankings of girls in her birth year (1996) after the tournament victory, as Star reported last week.
Brigitte’s consistency over the week showed how much she has matured.
“I thought it was a really good tournament. It was my last 14 and under nationals so I really wanted to do well. It feels really good to be a national champion,” Beck said.
Beck comfortably beat top seed Lyann Hoang in the semi-final 6-2, 6-0, before defeating fellow Victorian, close friend and training partner, Annabelle Andrinopoulos in the final 6-0, 6-4.
Williamstown’s Andrew Whittington, 17, made it through to the quarter finals of the 18s Australian boys championship, before going down to top seed James Duckworth 6-3, 6-3.
St Albans resident Stefani Stojic capped off a watershed year by winning the Optus 16s Australian girls doubles championship with partner Brooke Rischbieth on Friday.
Stojic and Rischbieth claimed the national doubles title after beating Melburnian Molly Polak and Ashley Kier (SA) 2-6, 6-0, 10-7.
The 15-year-old also made it to the semi-finals of the national singles tournament, before being knocked out by eventual tournament winner Samantha Harris, of Blackburn, 6-4, 7-6.
Stojic started the year ranked 173 in Australia, and will finish it ranked 59.
Hillside’s Viktorija Rajisic, a regular hitting partner of Stojic, missed out on an Australian Open wildcard entry after finishing second in her playing group.
Rajisic, 16, won two of her three games in the group, but lost to Jelena Dokic 6-2, 6-2.
Olivia Rogowksa defeated Dokic on Sunday to gain entry onto the Open.
