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Saville enhances reputation

01/28/2012 09:00:13 AM

Bernard Tomic is already mixing it with the best players in world tennis, but there is another young Australian making great strides who isn't far behind.

South Australian Luke Saville won the Australian Open boys final at Melbourne Park on Saturday, adding his home junior title to the Wimbledon trophy he won last year.

Tomic was also a dual junior champion, so Saville is certainly well on his way to emulating Australia's current No.1.

The 17-year-old is still ranked outside the top 1000 in the world though, but is currently the top ranked player on the junior circuit and was the No.1 seed at Melbourne Park.

But despite his recent success on the big stage, Saville said he was in no hurry to join the men's tour and still had a lot of work to do if he was going to make the transition from playing against boys to battling it out against seasoned professionals.
"I guess my main goal is to keep on developing my game and body," Saville said.

"Keep on transitioning into the futures and hopefully challengers by the end of the year and maybe put my hand up for a game here at the men's in 12 months time."

Saville wants to continue playing juniors in the short term, with another major title later in the year already within his sights.

However, there is one senior tournament that he would love to play if given the chance.

Saville has fond memories from winning the junior title at Wimbledon last year and would love the chance to show his prowess in the main draw in June.

"Of course I'll put my hand up for a wildcard," he said.

"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."

"I think I'll need to build up my ATP ranking a lot before, on the chance of getting that wildcard."

"I think I will probably have to go to 300 or 400 (ranking), and I'm 1200 right now."

"So that's a lot of future wins and maybe winning a few rounds at challenger tournaments before I get to that in six months time."

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

And while it might take a few more years before we see Saville doing the things that 19-year-old Tomic is currently achieving, he does believe there are a good crop of local youngsters coming through with him that should hold the game in Australia in good stead.

Saville said Tomic had already made the progression from a promising young player to a well established one and nominated himself, James Duckworth and Ben Mitchell as players who are not far behind.

"Those guys are just breaking out of the juniors and doing well," Saville said.

"James won a round here and Ben really took it up to John Isner."

"We've got a good atmosphere and a good environment in Australian junior tennis at the moment."

"We are all doing great at the moment, getting great results and we have no intentions of stopping here."

 
Photograph Copyright : Getty Images

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