Australia’s Tahlia Kokkinis is 16 years old and has an ITF World Tennis Tour junior ranking of 129. Before today she had only ever played two Junior Grand Slam main draw matches, at Melbourne a year ago, but she is lighting up the 2025 Australian Open Junior Championships. 

At about 8pm on Saturday she was told she would be playing her first-round match this year on the 1573 Arena show court, with Bulgaria’s Rosita Dencheva, seeded 10, the opponent. 

As well as a low ranking, the girl from Brisbane is a wildcard. It should have been no contest.

Do not be deceived by stats would be the Kokkinis retort, who is the most personable and talkative of players post match. Kokkinis won 6-3, 6-2.

Her ranking is down she said as she only played six junior tournaments last year. This was not due to inactivity or inertia of any sort.

“I thought I’d have a rip and go and play some ITF World Tennis Tour event," she said. "It has helped shape the person I am today. Now I am trying to balance a bit of both (pro and Juniors)."

Any nerves - and there were not obviously any - were dispelled early on when Kokkinis went to receive a ball from a ball kid.

“I dropped the ball and it hit my toe twice and ricocheted off and the crowd started laughing," she added. "I got another ball from the ball kid and it fell onto my foot (again), in two (successive) throws.”

It broke any tension and Kokkinis was off. The crowd had taken to her from the start anyway, her outfit of yellow top and visor and green skirt (with a tree design - “because I like nature”) immediately endearing her to everyone outside the Bulgarian camp.

Her play though was sublime, aggressive and attacking throughout. Relentless. There was a double dab of good fortune when at 3-0 ahead in set two, her return of serve hit the net forcefully before improbably plopping over onto Denceva’s side for a winner. Apology given, she somehow repeated the scenario on the very next point for 0-30.

Even when the Bulgarian mounted a comeback at 4-2, Kokkinis stayed resolute.

“I think I sort of slipped a little bit with intensity, my lack of first serves that were going in was costing me," she said. "She was aggressive on my second serve (but) I didn’t get stressed out.”

She is slated to play fellow Queenslander Emerson Jones in Friday’s semi-final, an opponent she has played and practiced with since they were about eight-years-old she says.

It would be some occasion.

Belgium’s Jeline Vandromme is very much lacking Kokkinis’s familiarity with Australia, this month being her first ever visit to Australia. Already she has played at, and won, J300 Traralgon but was pushed to the limit by another Australia wildcard, Koharu Nishikawa, in today’s first match on court 12.

Vandromme, the No. 3 seed (“no pressure,” she says) clad in a dashing red and pink ensemble, won 6-4 3-6 6-2 on a court covered with the full sun for its near two hour duration. 

She does not appear the type to be flustered by expectation and her outlook is not confined merely to her niche. Already she has been on Rod Laver Arena with her parents to watch Iga Swiatek take out Emma Radacanu and is keen to walk around Melbourne to sightsee and explore. Time away from the daily routine is welcome.

“I still go to school Monday to Friday, this is my last year and I like to study," she said,

Unconventionally, Latin (“I love to do it”) and Greek are her favourite subjects she says but the school books have not made it on this trip. Her December exams were “pretty good” she says - her English would be classified surely as A+ - and it is not challenging to see why. 

In the interim, she’s here to focus the Australian Open yet will make time to meet her favourite players should the opportunity pop up.

The 10 time king of Melbourne, Novak Djokovic, is an inspiration she says although defending AO women’s champ Aryna Sabalenka is her favourite. 

“I had a selfie with her in Paris and in New York,” she smiles.

And why not?