BATHURST tennis star Grace Schumacher has a realistic chance of finishing in the top 20 at the Australian Under 14s Tennis Championships in Melbourne which will continue into a fourth day today.
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Schumacher began her campaign on Saturday with a brilliant fightback to snare a three-set win over Yasmin Glazbrook in a three-hour epic before her hopes of overall victory were ended on Sunday.
She came up against 10th seeded Sanyukta Singh and was defeated 6-1 6-1, before getting things back on track somewhat with a convincing straight-sets win over Megan Smith yesterday morning, 6-3 6-2.
While the loss in round two means that winning is out of the question, players continue to get matches under their belt in order to secure an overall finishing position and enhance their national ranking.
With that in mind, Schumacher’s dad and coach Rod Schumacher says there is still plenty for her to achieve this week.
She is guaranteed a top 32 finish and, depending on other results, can finish as high as 17th.
“Grace is ranked fourth in the state in under 13s tennis but this is an under 14s tournament and I’m not exactly sure where she sits in that age group either in NSW or at a national level,” he explained.
“With this sort of event they lose a match and go into what is called a compass draw with four different quarters.
“She’s already won two out of three matches, and she’s playing in the biggest tournament in the nation for her age group and it attracts players from overseas, so she is in pretty elite company.”
On day one the talented right-hander was trailing Glazbrook by a set and was 3-5 down in the second before she rallied to win the second in a tie-break.
With momentum now behind her, she clinched the game in three hours, 14 minutes with a 6-4 win in the third.
Against Singh, the difference was stark on the scoreboard, but in reality it wasn’t as demoralising as it looked.
“They got to deuce in just about every game, but the other girl had a bit of extra experience and played those big points perfectly,” Rod Schumacher said.
“That’s where the difference was.
“But to give an indication of how close she is, the girl who beat her has since lost to the eight seed [Kaitlin Staines] fairly comfortably. The girl Grace beat in her third match in straight sets actually took Kaitlin Staines to a tie-break in the third set in round two.
“Basically, what it all shows is that if you are just a little bit off your game at this level, it isn’t hard for things to go the wrong way.”
The tournament heralds a big couple of months for Schumacher, who will play as the number one seed for the NSW team at the Australian Country Championships in January.
