2022 Australian Junior Open comes to a close after doubles event

The 2022 Australian Junior Open has come to an end with the conclusion of the doubles competition on Tuesday. 

After an exciting three days of singles competition, which saw Oscar Curtis and Madison Lyon win the David Palmer Trophy and Sarah Fitz-Gerald Trophy respectively, a number of juniors entered the various doubles events on offer.

The day got underway with a number of round robin and finished off in the early afternoon with the 1/2 play-offs.

Tasmania’s Jarrod and Caleb Atkins won the U15 Boy’s Doubles 2-0 (11-7, 11-10) over Henry Kross and Marcus Wang, who both collected singles medals on Monday.

In the U15 Girl’s Doubles, U11’s silver medallist Elizabeth Wang partnered with fellow New South Wales player Amelia Brigden to beat Karissa Cheung and Amelia Scott 2-0 (11-3, 11-6).

Meanwhile the mixed doubles saw Madison Nargar and Sebastian Williams beat Tina Ma and Manaia Kara-Brown 2-0 (11-9 11-8) in a close fought final.

U19 Boy’s winner Oscar Curtis and U15 Boy’s winner Joshua Rahul Raj came together to defeat Harvey Allan and Andre Lynn in the U19 Boy’s double final. 

It was one of the closest finals of the day with the match needing three games to decide the eventual winner. With third game saw Curtis and Raj take a 7-3 lead before Allan and Lynn were able to rattle off three consecutive point points to bring it back within one point.

Eventually the game was levelled at 8-8 then again at 9-9 before Curtis and Raj were able to take the win 2-1 (11-8 8-11 11-9).

Over in the U19 Girl’s Doubles Maggie Goodman and Joanne Joseph beat Caitlin Pratt and Hannah Slyth 2-0 (11-5 11-3) while the Classen siblings, Erin and Dylan, won a close U19 Mixed Doubles 2-0 (11-9 11-8) beating Madison Lyon and Jack Hansen.

It was a fantastic four-day event at Bendigo Squash Centre with over 150 players from across Australia coming from across Australia. 

Great Bendigo Mayor Andrea Metcalf was excited to have the Australian Junior Open in Bendigo.

“It’s great for our accomodation providers, great for our tourism providers but it’s great for sport and to be able to get out and play sport on a national level again,” she said.

“It’s fabulous for the young people coming here to play the sport.

“The squash was great…it’s such a great skill level. They were just outstanding,” Metcalf added.

For full results click here