Saville and Rogowska awarded Australian Open spots

Updated January 04, 2013 13:36:53

Rising Aussie tennis stars Luke Saville and Olivia Rogowska have been granted wildcards into this month's Australian Open in Melbourne.

Saville, who won the Australian Open junior title last year and the Wimbledon junior title a year earlier, has been nudging his way up the senior rankings and is now ranked 349 in the world after winning tournaments in Cairns and Bangkok in 2012.

"To be competing against some of the best players in the world is going to be a great experience for me," Saville said.

"I feel as if this is a reward for the great year I have had and all the hard work I have put into my tennis."

The Adelaide-based 18-year-old was named male junior of the year at the Newcombe Medal, Australian Tennis Awards, last month.

Rogowska, 21, achieved a career-high singles ranking of 108 during 2012 with title wins in Esperance, Rockhampton and Burnie, and main draw appearances at the Australian and US Opens.

Rogowska said she is grateful to tournament director Craig Tiley for the opportunity to play in front of family and friends in her home town of Melbourne.

"I've been training really well over the last few months and have worked a lot on my fitness and strength," Rogowska said.

"I believe that I can compete with the top girls in the world. I'm looking forward to a big 2013 and there is no better way to start than at the first Grand Slam of the year."

The reciprocal French Open wildcards will go to 19-year-old Caroline Garcia, currently ranked number 154, and Josselin Ouanna, ranked number 120.

A promising junior, Ouanna defeated current world number one Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the boys' singles draw at the Australian Open in 2004 before going down to countryman Gael Monfils in the decider.

Tags: sport, tennis, melbourne-3000, renmark-5341, adelaide-5000

First posted January 03, 2013 17:12:47

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Saville sets up rare junior double

Updated July 07, 2012 09:28:48

Australian top seed Luke Saville has advanced to the final in defence of his Wimbledon junior crown.

Saville, the world's top-ranked junior, outclassed Italian third seed Gianluigi Quinzi 6-3, 6-4 and faces an Australian Open final rematch on Sunday with Canadian fourth seed Filip Peliwo.

The 18-year-old South Australian won that Melbourne Park encounter so will be bidding to join the likes of Swedish all-time great Stefan Edberg as a triple junior grand slam champion.

Tennis great John Newcombe applauded Saville for "putting himself out there" to try to defend his title, unlike fellow Australian Ashleigh Barty, who won the girls' title last year but returned home after being knocked out in the first round of the women's singles last week.

Other prodigies like Lleyton Hewitt and Bernard Tomic ditched the juniors for the pro ranks much earlier in their careers, but Newcombe believes Saville has made the right call to stick around for one more year before taking on the big boys.

Saville is hoping to become the first player since 1974 to go back-to-back in the boys' championship at the All England Club.

"It would be absolutely huge," Saville said.

"To have my name on the honour board already is huge, but I'd love to have it on there twice - it hasn't happened in something like 38 years."

The boom teenager was forced to wait an age for the rain to stop before he could get down to business in his semi-final.

But he put the delay to good use, drawing strength from Carlton's upset victory over Collingwood at the MCG.

"I closed my eyes for a little bit and probably waited around for about five hours and watched my footy team - Carlton - win beforehand so that made me pretty happy," Saville said.

"I was trying to play a little bit like Chris Judd out there."

Although he'll be favourite to retain his title, Saville has plenty of respect for his final foe.

"He's a really good player. This will be his third (grand slam) final of the year. He made the final of the French Open as well.

"But I played really good against him at the Australian Open, so it gives me great confidence."

Reaching the final once again completes a tumultuous fortnight for Saville, who had to endure the devastation of being scratched from the men's qualifying at Wimbledon due to an administrative blunder.

The exciting youngster was granted a wildcard into qualifying but the All England Club withdrew the invitation because he'd double-booked himself into a Futures tournament in Germany.

"It was very unfortunate, but there was nothing I could have done about it when they told me about it," Saville said.

"Once that was done, there was no point dwelling on it. It was in the past."

AAP

Tags: sport, tennis, united-kingdom

First posted July 07, 2012 08:41:12

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Saville wins Open boys' final

Updated January 28, 2012 20:10:44

Luke Saville joined esteemed company when he won the Australian Open boys' title, and not just by collecting the trophy from Ken Rosewall.

Saville became a dual junior grand slam champion on Saturday, adding the Australian Open to last year's Wimbledon title and joining recent Australians of the calibre of Pat Cash and Bernard Tomic to win two boys' majors.

The 17-year-old South Australian beat Canada's Filip Peliwo 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 on Rod Laver Arena to go one better than last year, when he was defeated in the final by Czech Jiri Vesely.

After being presented with the trophy by Australian great Rosewall, the top seed told spectators that winning the final felt a "shitload" better than losing.

Saville, who hails from Cobdogla, a country town of just 232 people, admitted later he should probably have chosen his words more carefully.

"I'll probably regret saying that word, but it was just the heat of the moment. It was just raw emotion out there. I said what I thought," he said, adding that it could have been worse. "Lucky it wasn't the other word."

Saville, the world's top-ranked junior, cruised to the final with the loss of just one set, but he was pushed hard by the unseeded Canadian before eventually winning in exactly two hours.

Earlier, left-handed American Taylor Townsend was a surprise winner of the girls' title after beating fourth-seeded Russian Yulia Putintseva in three sets.

The 14th-seeded Townsend cruised through the first set but had to fight off a comeback from the Russian before winning 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.

Townsend, 15, secured the win despite making 44 unforced errors, balanced by her 36 winners.

Saville is now on the lookout for a wildcard into Wimbledon's main draw, but knows defending his junior title will be his main focus.

"The junior tournament is the second week, so unless I'm in the quarters of the men's, I'm pretty sure I'll be playing juniors," he said.

"But of course I'll put my hand up for a wildcard. It's obviously going to be an awesome experience if I get a wildcard into the men's, but that's a long way away.

"Obviously I'd love to play main draw there, but all I can do is try my best, get my ranking up, put my hand up. If they want to give me a wildcard, then awesome."

With a current world ranking of 1,177, success on the Futures circuit and a win or two at Challenger tournaments between now and June are essential if he is to justify a wildcard from the All England Club.

Saville says he cannot split his Wimbledon and Australian Open titles, but was satisfied by his ability to handle the pressure as top seed and local favourite to beat Peliwo.

"To stand up to that pressure and win the tournament, it's a massive relief, as well. So I can't really put one in front of the other," he said.

"It's almost relief to win it... it was almost shock at Wimbledon [and] here it's almost relief, different feelings but both feel just as good."

AAP/AFP

Tags: australian-open, tennis, sport, melbourne-3000, australia, adelaide-5000, sa, vic

First posted January 28, 2012 17:48:22

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Saville through to Open junior semis

Updated January 26, 2012 15:22:49

Australia's top-ranked junior Luke Saville has scraped through to the semi-finals of the Australian Open boys' championship.

Saville, who turns 18 next week, defeated number seven seed Kyle Edmund of England 7-5, 7-5.

The reigning junior Wimbledon champion meets Czech Adam Pavlasek for a spot in the final.

"It's good to back up what I did last year," Saville said.

"It wasn't the most clean match. It was a little bit breezy and I think we were both suffering from a few nerves.

"Sometimes it's nicer to win a bit scrappy and you can draw confidence from that.

"I could have made it a lot easier today. I served quite poorly throughout the match and definitely didn't play my best tennis."

Saville said he was aware he was a bigger target following his Wimbledon win.

"At Wimbledon, I was around 20 in the world and I'm now number one in the world," he said.

"Obviously, everyone's shooting for me now and trying to take me down but, from a young age, I've been top in Australia for my age group so I've experienced that feeling of being top dog.

"But I guess there are a few more expectations and pressure but I love the challenge and usually I thrive on that pretty well."

AAP

Tags: australian-open, tennis, sport, melbourne-3000, vic, australia

First posted January 26, 2012 13:37:45

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Saville into Open boys' final

Updated January 27, 2012 18:48:26

Luke Saville is one win away from becoming the third local Australian Open boys' singles champion in six years.

Saville, who turns 18 next week, beat Czech 17-year-old Adam Pavlasek 6-3, 6-4 on Friday in their semi-final at Melbourne Park.

The 10th-seeded Pavlasek is the boyfriend of Czech women's world number two Petra Kvitova, who also fell in the semi-finals of her event, to Russian Maria Sharapova on Thursday.

Saville, the world's number one junior and top seed, will play an unseeded opponent in Saturday's final.

American qualifier Mackenzie McDonald and Canadian Filip Peliwo were to meet in the second semi-final later on Friday.

Saville, who won junior Wimbledon last year, is the only Australian left with a chance of taking a trophy home from Melbourne Park.

If he wins on Saturday, he will join fellow Australians Brydan Klein (2007) and Bernard Tomic (2008) on the list of recent Australian champions in the boys' event.

AAP

Tags: australian-open, tennis, sport, australia

First posted January 27, 2012 18:48:26

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Saville takes Wimbledon glory

Published:Sunday, July 3, 2011 6:01 AEST

Australia's Luke Saville kisses the trophy after beating Britain's Liam Broady in the boys' final of the 2011 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Tennis Club on July 2, 2011.

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Aussie Saville into boys' final

Posted July 2, 2011 08:12:00

Bernard Tomic's Wimbledon run has fuelled the belief of Australia's next generation of tennis players.

South Australian tyro Luke Saville, 17, said Tomic's surge to the quarter-finals at the All England Club this month had opened up the eyes of his peers.

"It is a bit of a wake up call," Saville said after reaching Saturday's Wimbledon boys' final with a 6-4, 6-1 thrashing of Japan's Kaichi Uchida.

"I have trained with him in the past and I speak to him a little bit.

"It is almost like if he can make quarter-finals here this year, then it is doable.

"He is an unbelievable player and a very unique player for that but it gives us all belief and gives confidence to the group which is good."

Saville, a member of Australia's victorious 2009 Junior Davis Cup team, has enjoyed a breakthrough year.

He reached the junior final at the Australian Open and the semi-final at the French Open.

He will meet Liam Broady in the Wimbledon final after the Brit disposed of Australian teenager Jason Kubler in straight sets in their semi-final.

"He is going to have the whole crowd behind him and I know he will be up for it," Saville said.

"I will be ready for the challenge."

The last Australian to win the boys' title was Todd Reid while the most recent Brit to achieve the honour was way back in 1962.

Australia's Ashleigh Barty advanced to the semi-finals in the girls' singles with a 6-3, 6-2 win over American Victoria Duval.

Meanwhile, Samantha Stosur and German partner Sabine Lisicki are locked at 5-5 in the final set of their women's doubles semi-final against New Zealander Marina Erakovich and Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn.

Australian Paul Hanley and partner Su-Wei Hsieh will meet Mahesh Bhupathi and Elena Vesnina in the semi-finals of the mixed doubles tonight.

-ABC/AAP

Tags: sport, tennis, australia, united-kingdom, england

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