MELBOURNE: Teenagers Roman Safiullin and Tereza Mihalikova took giant steps in firing up their tennis careers by winning the boys' and girls' junior titles at the Australian Open on Saturday.

The top seeded Safiullin, a 17-year-old from Russia, came through a tight contest against South Korean Hong Seong-chan to claim the accolade 7-5, 7-6 (7/2).

The unseeded Mihalikova, 16, took the women's crown, easily beating British hope Kate Swan 6-1, 6-4.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2015