New Zealand's Austen Childs was beaten in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open junior boys singles in a late night match on Friday against Australian Nick Lindahl.
The Australian 17-year-old who has no significant ITF junior ranking but is at 655 in the senior ATP rankings won the match 7-6(4)6-2 over the 16-year-old Childs who lives in Tauranga.
Childs went down fighting in his first ever Grand Slam and even had an opportunity serving for the first set but the experience of the Australian proved too much for the Kiwi who was bitterly disappointed with the defeat.
"It was close in the first set. I served for the set but I was struggling to hold serve and I was disappointed. Waiting for the match to start just got me more anxious to play. But I got there ...to the quarterfinals," said Childs who is coached by Marcel Vos.
Orginally the match had been scheduled for the show court, Margaret Court Arena in the late afternoon. However, as a result of rain, the match started at 8.30pm on an outside court under trying conditions, including sub-standard lighting, a noisy spectator who appeared slightly drunk or mentally disturbed, line calling which was at times very tight and a lot of luck going the way of his opponent.
With Lindahl teeing off on many shots Childs now understands what it takes to be competitive in the world of top junior tennis.
"I new I couldn't hack it from the baseline. I needed to approach the net more and put some volleys away."
Childs will now return home to play the US$15,000 Futures tournaments at Blenheim and Hamilton in February.
"I'll be training hard to do my best and to get an ATP ranking and some points behind me," he said.
