Play is underway on the second day of the Oceania Junior Tennis Championship in Lautoka.
The top eight seeds in both the boys and girls draw safely navigated their opening round matches on Monday, with hometown hope Annie Shannon also advancing.
The Executive Officer for Oceania Tennis, Patrick O'Rourke, says some younger players from the Northern Marianas and Palau were given wildcards to aid their development.
He says the tournament includes NZ's top ranked male junior and is an important opportunity for players to gain rankings points.
"The only tournaments in the Oceania region, including Australia and New Zealand, that offer more points than this are the Australian Open Juniors and the lead in tournament for the Australian Open Juniors. All the rest, the other 12 world rankings tournaments we have in this part of the world, are all lower ranked than this tournament so it's a very important tournament for the good young ones to win to give them a shot at playing the grand slams next year."
