Priscilla Stojanovski has a perfect record in junior tennis tournaments and the trophy to prove it. 75513 Picture: JOE MASTROIANNI
By Liam Twomey
PRISCILLA Stojanovski achieved something most tennis professionals would be envious of when she lifted the winner’s trophy at the Boroondara Kia Amateur Australian Open earlier in January.
Not only was it the nine-year-old’s first tournament win, it was the first tournament the Taylors Lakes junior had ever entered.
On her way to the victory, Priscilla defeated the tournament’s number two seed in the semi final, 6-3, before winning a hard fought final 6-4.
Priscilla has been training since the age of four and was excited to win her first of what will hopefully be many tournaments.
“She is trying to start broadening her experience at the moment because she is quite advanced for her age,” her mother Maryanne said.
“If you see her play, everyone notices her. In Saturday competition she is playing against girls who are 13 or 14 and she is just up to their hips or underneath their arms. They kind of think she is going to be a push over but she really isn’t. She gets a lot of compliments for the way she plays, particularly for her age level.”
The next target on Priscilla’s radar will be the Australian Amateurs taking place at the end of this month but there are loftier expectations for the future.
“Recently, no-one was speaking about tennis and she ripped out, mum can I play against Maria Sharapova and I kind of looked at her. We don’t push her to do things, it’s all about her wanting to do it,” Maryanne said.
“So I said yeah if you keep working hard then there is more than a chance that you might make it with her.”
For now Priscilla plans to watch Sharapova and some of the other stars of world tennis at the Australian Open.
“We are hoping to go to the Open. She does have a lot of interest in watching tennis now. After her tournament she was sitting back and watching the bigger girls play and she picks up things they do,” Maryanne said.
“She is fairly shy and very quiet but when she is on the court it’s a whole different story and that surprises some people.”
