Polmans says his family’s decision to move from South Africa’s third-largest city – where sport and employment opportunities were low and crime was high – to East Brighton has greatly improved his game. “The tennis is stronger here. There’s more depth,” he says. “In South Africa I had to play above my age to get good matches because some of them were really weak. The courts are much better here. They only had hard courts in South Africa so it’s good to play here on clay and on grass.”

The infectiously passionate Polmans says he models his game on Australia’s current number one – and world number 42 – Bernard Tomic. “I’ve watched him play a lot live and I like how he mixes the pace up a lot,” he says. “His backhand down the line is really good. He’s got a similar backhand to me – it’s my favourite shot.”

Roger Federer is another favourite. “He doesn’t stay at the baseline and grind like Rafael Nadal,” he says. “He finishes rallies quickly and I like to do that. I learn from watching.”

Polmans predicts 2012 will be the year the Swiss maestro will win his fifth Australian Open. “I think it will be a close one in the final with Novak Djokovic but Federer’s going to win it.”

COMING OF AGE

He may love fishing with his mates, but a typical day in the life of Blackburn teenager Andrew Harris leaves little time for such leisurely pursuits.

The 17-year-old, currently ranked 51st in Australia, is on court by 8.30am. Throughout the day he also has to fit in a gym session, school and homework. “You’ve got friends all going to parties or going away on holidays together and as a tennis player you can’t do that because you’ve got training all the time,’’ he says. ‘‘You have to get early nights so you’re fresh for training in the morning.”

Despite all this, Harris wouldn’t trade his lifestyle. “I have the ambition of becoming a professional; that’s my dream,” he says. “I’m really passionate about tennis and I love everything about it. Competing, the fact you get to travel around the world playing a sport you love – it’s awesome.”

Tall and impressively built, Harris looks every inch the tennis player. It’s no surprise, considering his pedigree. Both his parents played – his mother is a former professional and his father was her coach – and he has been hitting balls since he was four.

It was a different story 18 months ago, when stress fractures in his back kept him on the sidelines. Shattered by the injury, his steely resolve eventually helped him recover. “It was very tough,” he admits. “There was a lot of rehab but in the end I came back a lot stronger.”

Harris is currently Australia’s second-best male junior, behind South Australian Luke Saville, who won the Wimbledon junior title last year. “Last year was a really good year for me,’’ says Harris. ‘‘I cracked the top 20 in the International Tennis Federation junior rankings [he’s now ranked 16th in the world] and had a fair few good results. I also got my first few ATP [Association of Tennis Professionals] points, so it was a pretty good year.”

As he approaches senior age – he turns 18 in March – Harris says playing against older opponents for the first time has been good for his game. “They set the benchmark. I obviously need to get a lot stronger to be able to match them.” Harris played off for a wildcard into the Australian Open but was beaten by 21-year-old Dane Propoggia from New South Wales. Harris described it as a tough match and says while he was disappointed, focusing on future fixtures had helped him through it.

When he’s not thinking about his game, Harris enjoys hanging out with mates. “We go to the city or go fishing … I love fishing. It’s relaxing.”

THAT WINNING FEELING

While most 15-year-olds are thinking about homework, parties and getting a learner’s permit, Isabelle Wallace’s day revolves around tennis.

The East Bentleigh resident is a member of the prestigious National Tennis Academy, a development program run by Tennis Australia to turn the country’s most talented 10- to 16-year-olds into potential Grand Slam champions. It means Wallace forgoes the normal school environment in favour of a tennis-focused program.

‘‘A typical day is getting up early, having a hit for up to two hours in the morning with my coach [Simon Rae], then the gym for about an hour; school until 2.30pm and then another hit for up to two hours,’’ says Wallace.

She enjoys the mix of training and schoolwork. ‘‘Being at the academy makes it a lot easier to juggle tennis and school than it would be if I wasn’t here.’’

Sport runs in Wallace’s family; her father, Alan, was a professional soccer player in his native Scotland and she has been playing tennis since

she was five. Her earliest memories of the sport involve ‘‘just having fun with Dad’’ but as she got older and started playing matches, she became addicted to the feeling of winning.

The Wallace family relocated to Melbourne from northern Scotland five years ago to focus on Isabelle’s tennis career. ‘‘There isn’t much tennis in the north of Scotland so Melbourne was our choice to live because of the sporting facilities here,’’ says her father.

Wallace is currently ranked 87th in the country, and is fresh from a successful 2011 campaign, during which she took out the under-14 National Claycourt Championship in Ipswich in April and spent two months in Europe, training and competing in Italy, Germany, Holland and Switzerland.

Last month, at the December Showdown, Wallace displayed a champion’s mental resilience in what she describes as ‘‘the best win I’ve ever had’’. Competing in the under-18 division against girls up to three years older, Wallace found herself on the brink of defeat – 5-0 down in the third set – against fourth seed Rachel Tredoux.

Somehow, she found the strength and will to win five straight games and force the set into a tiebreak, which she eventually won. ‘‘Things were going really fast and she had all the momentum, so I just needed to slow things down and focus on my own game,’’ she recalls.

The teenager says playing against older and stronger opponents is a good challenge. ‘‘I like it because there’s not much pressure on me as I am younger. The pressure is on them,’’ she says. ‘‘It means I go into a game thinking it will just be a good learning experience.’’

This year, Wallace will focus on making the national top 30. Seeing her name up in lights at the Australian Open would be a dream come true – and with her success to date, it may become a reality sooner rather than later.