Carlos Alcaraz and Gemma Lairón have earned themselves titles on home soil at the 16 & Under Dani Usón In Memoriam, held at the Sanchez-Casal Academy near Barcelona.
In the girls’ draw of this Category 1 event, Gemma Lairon defeated Diana Shnaider, the number one seed from Russia 1-6 7-6(3) 6-3 in a gruelling final. She was definitely the standout player of the tournament, having earlier defeated the number one seeded Dutch player, Clarine Lerby in the quarterfinals.
In the Boys’ singles, Alcaraz defeated top seeded Anthony Genov of Bulgaria 6-3 6-2 in the final. The Spaniard was unseeded coming into the tournament and won his first three matches in convincing style, not dropping a set. In the semi finals he defeated the number three seeded Italian Luca Nardi, before going on to sweep aside Genov in the final.
In the doubles, the Russian made up for her loss in the singles finals by teaming up with Antonia Ruzic (CRO) to exact revenge on Lairon and her partner Aina Plana (ESP) 6-0 6-4. Meanwhile there was victory for losing boys’ singles semifinalist, when Nardi teamed with his compatriot Alberto Orso to defeat top seeds Matvei Aleksandrov (RUS) & Benedict Kurz (GER) 7-6(2) 7-6(1).
The tournament was renamed in memory of the Sánchez-Casal Academy alumno Dani Usón, whose family attended the trophy presentation ceremony. The event is the last top-tier tournament before the Junior Masters in early October.
Category 3 events were also held in Moldova, Ukraine, Cyprus and Portugal this week. For full results in all events, please click here.