Bubka's son makes Grand Slam debut

While most first round losers in the junior boys competition normally just stroll out of the Melbourne Park gates unnoticed, things were a little more hectic for 15-year-old .

As the son of one of the world's greatest ever athletes, the former Olympic and world champion pole vaulter who bears the same name, media interest in the 15-year-old's first appearance at a Grand Slam event was guaranteed.

There was not a single spectator at his match against Romanian Florin Mergea but it was still standing room only at court 13, where a small army of reporters, photographers and television crews had assembled.

Bubka lost the match 6-2, 7-6, which was no real surprise as Florin is two years older and already one of the best junior players in the world, but nobody was interested in the winner.

While Mergea packed up his rackets and wandered back to the locker room, Bubka began the first of a round of interviews that would fill up the rest of his day.

He completed a series of radio and television interviews in half a dozen languages then proceeded to the large press conference room, an expansive theatre where most senior players never get to.

"I'm used to it, people have been coming up to me for years and saying 'you're the son of a famous father,'" he said.

"It's a little strange but I'm used to it. I just wish one day it will be about me."

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"I tried it once, just for fun, but I've always liked tennis more. I want to be a professional tennis player," he said.

Although he was born in the Ukraine, the junior Bubka was raised in Monte Carlo, where he still lives. He began playing tennis at age seven and within two years he was already good enough to beat his father.

"He took it well. He's been practising a lot since, but I still beat him every time," he said.

One of his coaches is Bob Brett, the same man who helped train Wimbledon champions Boris Becker and Goran Ivanisevic, and his favourite player is Marat Safin.

Although his career is just beginning, the early signs are good and he is steadily climbing up the junior rankings.

He finished last year ranked 225th but has moved to 157th after successfully making it through the qualifiers to earn a start in the Australian Open.

Bubka said he watched his father compete when he was younger but now his dad watches him, although he didn't make the long trip to Australia.

He was too young to see his father win gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics but was in Athens in 1997 when he won his sixth and final world championship.

"That was the most memorable moment for me. He was injured all year and it was his first competition back and he won the world championship."

The senior Bubka retired after the Sydney 2000 Olympics and is now chairman of the International Olympic Committee's Athletes' Commission.