THE 2015 Newcastle Junior Open was played over the weekend with the Sydney metropolitan region dominating.  As previously reported, the Newcastle Junior Open, a gold junior tour event attracted a large and quality field.  Disappointingly Newcastle players did not figure prominently in the finals.  Traditionally you would see a number of Novocastrians as title winners, however, the closest were Nords Wharf’s Matthew Ellis taking out the 16 and under boys’ singles title and Gloucester’s Leyton Richards winning the 13 and under boys’ singles.  Where is the Northumberland regions elite junior program heading?  Recent tournament results and the number of participants in the Medibank Junior Development Series are reasons for concern.  For sport to prosper it needs participation at the grassroots level  complemented by a development pathway to elite and maybe professional levels.  Newcastle and Hunter coaches and administrators need to have a serious look at this situation.  Many juniors are withdrawing from elite training squads because the training is too intense or the commitment too high.  What has happened to the Australian way of shooting for the stars with no mountain is too high to climb.  The disciplines of elite training and competition are great life educators.  The singles champions for this year's Newcastle Junior Open were: Cooper Glen Wilkinson (10 and under boys’ singles), Sienna Leeson from Oatley (10 and under girls singles), Pavie Marinkov from Collaroy Plateau (11 and under boys singles), India Schreiber from Sydney (11 and under girls singles), Antonio Li (12 and under boys’ singles), Anastasia Berezov from Terrey Hills (12 and under girls’ singles), Leyton Richards from Gloucester (13 and under boys’ singles), Sahra Dennehy from Armidale (13 and under girls’ singles), Josh Kaplan from Maroubra (14 and under boys’ singles), Caitlyn Portela from North Rocks (14 and under girls’ singles), Connor Dennehy from Armidale (15 under boys’ singles), Bojana Marinkov from Collaroy Plateau (15 and under girls’ singles), Matthew Ellis from Nords Wharf (16 and under boys’ singles), Jacinta Milenkoski from Sydney (16 and under singles), Rory Murchland (17 and under boys’ singles), Amy Galloway (17 and under girls’ singles), Pete De Oliveira from Bonnyrigg (18 and under boys’ singles) and Julia Khamula and Amy Galloway (18 and under girls’ singles).  The Newcastle Cougars Tennis Club once again conducted a highly successful Easter tournament at District Park.  Despite the poor weather events were played with local pairing Cliff Lorimar and Les Collings taking out one of the mens’ doubles events. Prominent Sydney coach and successful open and senior tournament player, Craig Edwards was outstanding winning singles, doubles and mixed doubles events.  Most importantly Frank Kitcher and his hard working committee raised  $8455 for cancer research, bringing the total in the eight years the tournament has been running to $88,000.