Jeorge Collins named in the NSW side to play Foundation Cup

Collins was recently selected in the NSW side to contest the Foundation Cup, bringing together the best under 13s regional players from across Australia together for the team tournament at Kooyong Tennis Centre in Melbourne.

It shouldn’t come as any surprise for those who have followed Collins’ young career. At just 13 years of age he’s already sitting just outside the top 700 in Australia.

The Foundation Cup has been running for over 20 years, giving the best young players in regional Australia the opportunity to further their game at a high level. 

Collins’ victory in July’s NSW Junior Country Championships at Forster paved the way for his selection in the Foundation Cup side.

The Bathurst junior was thrilled to hear he’d made the cut.

“I was at camp in Canberra and dad texted me to say that I was in the team,” he said.

“I was very surprised and excited to hear it.

“At the tournament in Forster I was told that the top two in the 12s would probably get in. I was feeling pretty confident that I could do that.

“I ended up winning that and did alright in the other age groups, 15s and men’s.”

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Collins blitzed through the under 12s tournament as top seed, dropping just six games over four matches on his way to the final.

He had a tougher battle with fourth seed Maka Ofati in the final but prevailed in a super tiebreak.

Collins and Ofati also teamed up to take out the doubles tournament in the same age group.

He gained plenty of experience from his time in the other brackets, winning a match in the under 15s bracket and pushing an opponent seven years his senior to the limit in the open age event.

Collins links up with Vitorio Sardinha as the other boys selection for NSW.

Collins first arrived at Bathurst in 2014 from Frenchs Forest and it didn’t take him long to make an impact in the Central West.

Since his time in the city Collins feels like tennis has improved immensely.

“I’m feeling more focused now,” he said.

“I’m more serious about my tennis than when I was nine, and I think I’ve been playing well lately.”

Collins’ recent tournaments include the Tennis World Canberra Junior Open and NSW State Championships Gold JT in October.

At the Canberra event Collins entered as the fourth seed. He flew through his opening two matches before going down to second seed Charlie Camus 6-2, 6-4.

Collins had an unfortunate opening round matchup in the State Championships after missing out on a seeding by one spot.

He came up against fellow higher-ranked player Aahil Kasimkunti and went down.