Just hours before Ash Barty was serving her way to her historic Wimbledon win, one of the region's rising stars was claiming one of the biggest wins of her career.
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Tamworth's Taya Powell took out the 16&U girls singles at the Rod Laver Junior Championships in Queensland over the weekend.
The top seed for the tournament, Powell secured her first age group state title with a 6-3, 6-0 win over fifth seed Jemma Gossow.
"I was happy with how I played," the teenager said.
"I had some tough opponents."
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The young ace had to show her fighting spirit as well as her tennis skills. In her second round match she came back from a set down to clinch the second set in a tie-breaker and send the game into a super tie-break, which she won 10-3.
The final was pretty tight in the first set but then Powell took control in the second on the back of a strong serve and some ripping off-forehands. She also had some success coming to the net.
Her volleying game is something she has been developing with her Gunnedah-based coach Dale Martin.
"A big part of my game I've been working on is volleying and winning points off that," Powell said.
Fortunately the final was on Saturday so she was able to stay up to see Barty become the first Australian women to lift the famed Venus Rosewater dish in 41 years.
"I watched the final on Saturday night after I played, I was pretty tired but I watched it," she said.
"It was awesome".
Powell's Queensland triumph continued some great results in 2021.
Back in January she finished runner-up in the women's division at the Margaret Court Cup in Albury, a silver level AMT (Australian Money Tournament) tournament, and won the 16&U girls singles and doubles at the Parkes Junior Open.
She also won the 16s title at Bathurst, and over Easter won the open ladies singles, 18s singles and open women's doubles at the Coffs Harbour Easter Open, which is "a pretty big tournament".
The recent COVID outbreaks has caused a few disruptions. She was planning to contest a few ITF Juniors tournaments but they were postponed.
For the moment it is a bit of a wait and see game with a lot of tournaments not going ahead.
"If the borders don't close I'll try and get to Queensland and play in a few tournaments up there," Powell said.
"There's some pretty big one's."
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