Representing Australia in tennis this year are four National Tennis Academy graduates: Jeremy Jin, Derek Pham, Catherine Aulia and Lily Taylor, who now attend colleges in the United States.
Rhine-Ruhr, Germany, 15 July 2025 | Jack Larkin
Four young Australian tennis players will head to Germany to compete in the World University Games next week representing the UniRoos for the first time
The World University Games is staged every two years, this year taking place from 17–26 July across four German cities.
More than 10,000 students will compete from more than 150 countries, with the event broadcast to over 300 million people in 100 countries around the world.
Representing Australia in tennis this year are four National Tennis Academy graduates: Jeremy Jin (21), Derek Pham (21), Catherine Aulia (21), and Lily Taylor (18), who now attend colleges in the United States.
The tournament includes men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles, and mixed doubles, with medals awarded for first, second, and third place.
At the 2023 World University Games, also held in Chengdu, China, Australia tied for fifth in mixed doubles.
Australian young gun Derek Pham is heading into his third year at Oklahoma State, studying finance, but he curtailed his summer break in the US to train at the Queensland Tennis Academy in Brisbane in the lead-up to the Games.
This isn’t Pham’s first time to Germany; he and teammate Jeremy Jin, currently at the University of Florida, undertook a European tour through Tennis Australia when they were 13.
“I’ve been to Germany once before with Jeremy, who’s going with me again this year. We went on a tour when we were 13 as part of a Tennis Australia initiative and had a great time, so we’re hoping to relive that this year,” he said.
This year’s team is set to have great chemistry, with all players having been part of the National Tennis Academy in Brisbane. Pham and Jin even lived down the road from each other growing up.
“Jeremy and I have been good friends for a long time now. He once lived down the road from me, and we’re still very close. Catherine and I have also known each other for a long time, meeting through the academy, and Lily obviously lives in Brisbane, so we’ve all been well acquainted,” he said.
Derek says he’s loving his time in the US but has his eye on the future, wanting to see where his tennis will take him.
“I’m looking to see how tennis goes. The good thing about a college scholarship is that you can get your degree fully funded, but my focus remains on tennis. We’ll see how I’m playing at the end of college, but I feel I’m in a place where I can go play at the next level,” he said.
Catherine Aulia, who studies kinesiology at University of Tennessee, is excited to reunite with her former National Tennis Academy teammates in Germany.
“We don’t really get to see each other that much over in America, so it’ll be really exciting to play with them. We’ve known each other for a long time now, and it will be cool to represent Australia together—it’ll feel a bit like a college atmosphere,” she said.
This isn’t Aulia’s first time representing Australia either, having played in the Billie Jean Cup when she was 14 and recently representing Team Australia at multiple Master’U BNP Paribas Championship events since 2022.
Aulia is confident that she and fellow Australian Lily Taylor, who is in her first year at Arizona State University, will make a fierce team in the women’s doubles event.
“We’ll go well in doubles for sure—both Lily and I really like playing doubles together. Obviously, I’m hopeful we do well in the singles as well, but it’ll be interesting to see who our competition is during the event,” she said.
Aulia says the team has been in touch in the lead-up to the event, they know each other so well it’s like catching up with family.
“We’ve got a big group chat going, so we just update each other on training in there, but I think we’ve known each other long enough—we don’t need to talk constantly,” she said.
“It’s just like rock up and get going. It’ll be good—I can’t wait.”
