Local tennis ace Isabella Crossman has fallen just short of reaching the main draw of the girls’ singles at the Australian Open Junior Championships after bowing out in the qualifying rounds.
Crossman was competing in the preliminary rounds, held at the Traralgon Tennis Association, battling it out against elite tennis players from across the world to reach the main stage of the tournament in Melbourne.
But her hopes of a debut Australian Open appearance were doused after she was knocked out by number one seed Mara Gae 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 in the first round.
Crossman faced a stern challenge against the Romanian international Gae, but she took the fight right to her highly-fancied opponent.
Gae was up 3-1 early on in the contest but Crossman fought back to level things up at three games apiece, before Gae pulled away again to claim the opening set.
Crossman responded brilliantly in the second set, however, playing some superb tennis as she blasted her way to an exquisite 1-6 win to force the match into a third and final set.
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The match was on a knife’s edge in the deciding set with the scores locked at 2-2, but Gae was too strong in the end.
The number one seed proved why she was ranked so highly, fighting her way to a gritty 6-2 win to seal the match.
Despite the result, it was still a superb effort from Crossman.
Ranked 582 in the world for junior girls’ tennis, Crossman came close to causing an almighty upset against Gae, herself ranked 100th overall.
It was the second year in a row that Crossman has taken part in the qualifiers, having also competed at the event in 2022.
Players need to have a top-level ranking to be able to participate in the Australian Open qualifying tournament.
Crossman, from Torrumbarry, emerged as a top talent during her time at Rich River Tennis Club and has recently been competing at International Tennis Federation events around the country against the top players from around Australia and the world.
This season she is playing club tennis in Shepparton, and she was part of Loddon Campaspe’s ground-breaking win earlier this month at the Victorian Inter-Regional Country Championships.