Coach ecstatic as Austen rolls on

By KELLY EXELBY
Marcel Vos is seeing a side of teenage prodigy Austen Childs this week that he hasn't seen before.
And the Mount Maunganui tennis coach is loving every minute of it.
In his first junior tennis Grand Slam, Childs won his way into the third round of singles at the junior Australian Open with a three-set victory yesterday over Australian Greg Jones.
Childs won 7-5 3-6 6-3, hitting 29 winners to his rival's 24 in front of a noisy contingent of Kiwi fans who drowned out Jones' home supporters.
Vos, who has coached Childs for four years, said the softly-spoken 16-year-old was growing in stature with every match.
"The kid's confidence has gone through the roof with these two wins - he's learned from his mistakes and he's certainly turning a few heads here," Vos said yesterday from Melbourne.
"The nerves of that first set (on day one) have gone.
"If anything, I'm the one who's nervous out there, although I'm trying hard not to show it."
Childs did suffer his first loss yesterday - in the first round of the doubles. The Tauranga Boys' College student and Czech partner Martin Kamenik were easily beaten by tournament second seeds Kevin Botti (France) and Stephen Donald (Australia) 6-1 6-3.
Against Jones, Childs was aced nine times by his taller opponent but had a better first serve percentage (65 per cent) and was more successful with his forehand and approaches to net.
He got broken by Jones in the third game of the second set but fought hard to close it out in the third.
The match was close on the court and statistically, with Childs winning 95 points overall to Jones' 91.
Childs will now play third seed Sanam Singh of India, ranked No 5 in the world.
"I haven't seen him play that much.
"I think he has an all round game, he's got an alright serve and comes in a bit," Childs said.
"I'll have to be aggressive again and not make so many unforced errors and work the point more."
There wasn't such good news for two other New Zealanders.
Canterbury's Ellen Barry lost her second round match to seventh seed Sorana-Mihaela Cirstea, of Romania, while Aucklander Sacha Jones also exited after losing to third seeded Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova.
Barry, ranked at 32, lost 2-6 4-6 to the 15th-ranked Cirstea, while Jones went down 3-6 1-6.
Despite being the huge underdog today against Singh, the Asia/Oceania champion, Vos believes Childs can force his way into the quarterfinals.
"He played a great match (yesterday) from start to end - I think it is already good for New Zealand tennis but (it would be) amazing if he made the final eight.
"Singh's a tough customer but if Austen plays the way he's been playing these last two days he's got a chance."
Childs, whose performance this week is likely to push him from No 47 in the world into the top-40, said he had been largely unaffected by the Melbourne heat so far.
It isn't all work for the talented teen though - he was hoping to sneak a glimpse of Russian glamour girl Maria Sharapova's clash with Nadia Petrova last night on centre court.