2024 Australian Junior Championships Preview
Published Fri 27 Sep 2024
The 2024 Australian Junior Championships commence on Saturday morning at Thornleigh Squash & Fitness Centre in Sydney’s north with an enticing week of competition ahead.
Starting with the individual competition on the opening four days, 10 new champions will be crowned on Tuesday with none of the 2023 winners defending their age group titles this year.
Many of the top competitors will then move on to represent their state next week in the Teams event when Victoria will look to go back-to-back after breaking a 34-year drought last year.
One of the leaders of that team, Joanne Joseph will be looking to go from U17 runner-up to U19 champion this year as she steps to the top age division as the number one seed.
If seeds hold to form, she will meet Queensland ace Sarbani Maitra - the 2023 U15 champion - in the final however the likes of Katlyn Hall (SA) and Saige Lawson (QLD) will have something to say about that.
Australian Junior Open champion Thomas Scott (NSW) has the opportunity to add the AJC title to his impressive 2024 resume and will have the advantage of playing on the courts of his home club.
He enters the tournament as the U19 second seed with WA’s Daniel Marsh filling the top line of the draw. Haider Naqvi (QLD), the 2023 U17 champion shares the 3/4 seeding with Jackson Wylie (NSW) - the player he beat in last year’s final - with the top four ranked players all receiving a bye through to the second round.
Like Scott, Kasper Cheung (NSW) is also playing on his home courts this week and will look to convert his 2023 victory in the U15s into and U17 title. The U17 girls draw is a wide-open affair which could see the draw open up over the weekend.
Joel Raj (QLD) went down to Cheung in the U15 final last year but takes the top seeding into this year’s event. He is on a collision course with Parkes’ young gun Henry Kross (NSW) who was runner-up at both the AJO and Oceania Junior Championships earlier in the year.
Tina Ma (VIC) will have the same goal as Raj, looking to turn 2023 silver into 2024 gold. The Victorian was beaten by Maitra in last year’s final but enters this year’s AJC as top seed. Ma has been near-unstoppable in her age group this year, winning both the AJO and OJC titles.
The U13 and U11 competitions will see stars of the future battling out, with players to keep an eye on including top seeds Benjamin Boardman (NSW), Cleo Poulava (NSW), Aleister Loo (VIC) and Abbey Boswell (QLD).
Play begins at 9am AEST on Saturday with Courts 2 & 8 streamed live each day via SquashAUS.TV .
