Australian Open 2012 live stream

The junior events kick off on Sunday at Australian Open 2012 and there is plenty of local interest, especially in the boys’ event where a handful of home hopes have a legitimate shot at winning the title.

Heading the event is top seeded South Australian Luke Saville, who only two weeks ago rose to the world No.1 junior ranking. Saville enjoyed an excellent 2011 season highlighted by his win at the junior Wimbledon championships in July, and comes into the event in great form thanks to winning back-to-back events in Asia late last year and his runner-up finish at the recent junior event in Traralgon.

The runner-up at last year’s junior Australian Open, Saville will be hoping to go one better at the 2012 event, kicking off his campaign tomorrow against Israeli Or Ram-Harel.

There will be plenty of obstacles in his path, including his victim in the Wimbledon final, the United Kingdom’s Liam Broady. Third-seeded Broady peaked at a career high junior ranking of No.3 on 2 January this year, and comes into the event after a semifinal finish at the prestigious Eddie Herr International Championships late in 2011.

The powerful Brit from Manchester will open against Italian Matteo Donati, and because he’s in the opposite side of the draw, could reprise his Wimbledon final against the No.1 seed.

Joining Broady in the bottom half of the draw is No.2 seed Thiago Monteiro. Despite limited success at junior Grand Slams in 2011, the Brazilian enjoyed an impressive season nonetheless, scooping four titles and rising more than 100 ranking places in the ITF junior rankings.

Monteiro has drawn local wildcard Jack Schipanski in his first-round match.

Rounding out the top four seeds is Japan’s Kaichi Uchida, who opens against another Italian in Pietro Licciardi. The Osaka native reached the semifinals at junior Wimbledon in 2011 and enjoyed a solid end to his season with consecutive semifinals at a Grade A event in his hometown as well as a run to the last four at the Asia/Oceania Closed International Junior Championships.

Compatriots joining Saville as title hopes will be No.6 seed Andrew Harris and 13th seed Nick Kyrgios. Both enjoyed good performances in December’s 18s Australian Championships and took part in their first Grand Slam main draw earlier this week at Melbourne Park. The pair will no doubt take that form and learning experience into their junior campaigns. Harris has drawn Croatian Filip Veger while Kyrgios takes on Jae Hwan Kim of Korea.

Also flying the flag for the host nation will be Alexander Babanine, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Bradley Mousley, James Frawley, Christopher O’Connell, Jordan Thompson, Matthew Tanza and Jay Andrijic.

Leading the girls’ event is top seed Irina Khromacheva, who comes into the tournament after an extremely impressive 2011 season.

Building on the success of 2010 – a year in which she finished at junior No.5 in the world at just 15 years of age – the Russian went on to claim the year-end top ranking as well as four titles.

Her results at Grand Slam level included a quarterfinal finish at the Australian Open, semis at the French Open before reaching the final at Wimbledon, where she may be known to Australians as the girl Ashleigh Barty beat on the way to the title.

While Barty has not entered the draw at Australian Open 2012, there are plenty of local hopes in the draw. Khromacheva has drawn one herself, opening her campaign against Naiktha Bains.

Although Abbie Meyers was the only Australian to gain direct acceptance into the draw, the green and gold will also be represented by qualifier Zoe Hives and wildcards Storm Sanders, Brooke Rischbieth, Georgiana Ruhrig, Priscilla Hon, Belinda Woolcock, Eliza Long and Sara Tomic.

Tomic is the promising sister of men’s top-40 star Bernard, who has reached the fourth round of the men’s singles and will take on Roger Federer on Sunday night on Rod Laver Arena. She opens against Christina Makarova of the United States.

Also highlighting the girls’ field is second seed Eugenie Bouchard, a semifinalist at last year’s event. The Canadian won two ITF junior titles in 2011 and rose to a career-high ranking of No.3 at the beginning of January.

Third seed Anett Kontaveit has landed on Khromacheva’s side of the draw. The Estonian – from a country little known for its tennis talent aside from WTA Brisbane International winner Kaia Kanepi – comes into the event on a high after clinching the prestigious Orange Bowl title in December.

She will face Japan’s Maho Kowase, while No.4 seed Yulia Putintseva completes the top-four line-up, taking on American qualifier Catherine Harrison.