24 Jan 2012

NZ junior knocked out of Australian Open in first round

6:08 am on 24 January 2012

New Zealand's top ranked junior tennis player, Emily Fanning has been dumped out of the Australian Open Juniors after losing her first round match to junior world number 13 and eighth seed Anna Schmiedlova.

The 16-year-old Fanning, who has a current ITF junior ranking of 48, had opportunities to take a 5-4 lead against her more powerful opponent in the first set but couldn't capitalise, the Slovakian eventually winning 7-5 6-1 in one hour 29 minutes.

In the doubles Fanning and American Julia Elbaba bowed out of the tournament after losing to Olga Doroshina (Russia) and Christina Makarova (USA) 6-1 6-4 in their first round encounter.

Fanning's next tournament is the US$25,000 Configure Express Pro Challenger in Wellington in late February after she returns home (Timaru) for a week or two of rest.