Leanne battles to be top girl
SHE is one of the fastest rising juniors on the Australian circuit and there is no stopping 13-year-old Brisbane tennis star Leanne Abouhamad.
The junior star, who won the Brisbane Under-14 Age Championships earlier this year, has been on a tear through the North Queensland tennis circuit over the past month.
Next on her list: Townsville.
Abouhamad, who is ranked second in Australia for girls born in 2007, will aim to take down the under-16s girls division as well as the main event Women’s Gold Australian Money Tournament (AMT) at this weekend’s Pickerings Auto Group North Queensland Open.
But she will have to fight through the pain to do it after suffering a freakish ankle injury while enjoying time off in Townsville this week.
Despite playing and training consistently for the past six weeks, including junior tournament wins at both Rockhampton and Gladstone, it was a trip to Magnetic Island that brought the teenager undone this week when she tripped on a bunch of slippery rocks.
But she has vowed to not let the injury get in her way after finalising her preparation at the Tennis Townsville courts in North Ward on Wednesday.
“It is not good (to hurt it) this close to a tournament, I am going to a physio and I will just have to strap it up for the weekend,” she said.
“I have been training (this week), but I have done it a bit easy, I did four sessions during my break. I took two days off and I came to (Townsville Tennis coach) Dan (Swords) and we kept training. I had a hit with some of the guys here.
“I needed the break. I haven’t had a break from tennis for about four weeks. You have to train during the weekends, and train while your opponents are sleeping. It felt good to have the break, but it felt kind of off at the same time.”
Abouhamad said she had taken a lot of inspiration from Australia’s world no. 1 and Wimbledon champion Ash Barty as well as teenage sensation England’s Emma Raducanu.
The Brisbane teenager, who moved to Australia last year after growing up in Dubai and Poland, is still getting used to the Queensland heat and said that could play a big factor this weekend.
She will start her tournament in the under-16 girls on Thursday before moving into the main draw of the women’s AMT singles, where she is seeded fourth for the tournament behind fellow junior stars Chelsea Stergiopolous, Tahlia Kokkinis and Mikayla Zahirovic.
“The heat in Townsville is quite difficult, the wind does not bring the humidity down on the court. You get so hot and start sweating immediately and then the racquet starts slipping in your hand,” Abouhamad said.
Jacob Bradshaw, who finished runner-up at the Caboolture Open earlier this month, will be the top seed in the Men’s AMT event in Townsville.
Bradshaw is ranked 185 in Australia and has had a consistent season.