Midway through the week of the 33rd Les Petit As in Tarbes, France, the girls' top seed Anastasia Potapova marvelled at the tournament's winners: "Everyone who wins here is a star!" She declared that "it would mean so much" for her to follow in their footsteps.
Dreams came true swiftly for the 13-year-old Russian. After a head-turning 2014 in which she compiled a 55-5 win-loss record and swept to eight titles - including both the European Junior Championships and the European Junior Masters - Potapova came into Les Petits As as the one to beat. Under pressure to take another prestigious crown, there were a couple of wobbles: in the second round, Romania's Carmen-Roxana Manu stole the second set before falling 2-6 in the third; in the quarter-finals, an ill-tempered Potapova found herself in the unusual position of going down a bagel set to Ukraine's Anna Laguza. In the final, the hard-hitting Serb left-hander Olga Danilovic powered to a 4-2 lead in the second set after losing a tight opener.
Each of these tight spots simply gave Potapova an opportunity to showcase perhaps her greatest strength: her fighting spirit. Vocal and intense even in good times, finding herself in a hole seemed to inspire Potapova to hit harder, chase shots faster and exhort herself louder. Against Laguza, she ground out a tough second set 6-3 before running away with the decider 6-1; in the final, at 2-4, deuce on her opponent's serve in the second set, Potapova came up with a brilliant dropshot-lob combination that left Danilovic in tears, and ruthlessly followed it by a big forehand return winner to break back. A few minutes later, another big forehand winner on her second match point gave her a 6-4 6-4 victory and the trophy.
Elsewhere last week's Nike Junior International Teen Tennis champion in Bolton, the USA's Caty McNally, was surprisingly upset in round three by Kamilla Rakhimova, of Russia 7-5(5) 3-6 6-3. Rakhimova also vanquished the youngest player in the quarter-finals, 12-year-old Himari Sato of Japan; Sato impressed with her ultra-aggressive game, but like McNally in the previous round, her early flashy winners turned to wild errors before the Russian's stronger consistency, and she fell 2-6 7-5 6-4.
On paper, boys' champion Chun-Hsin Tseng had a much easier path to the title. Top seed Jack Draper, of Great Britain, beset by a leg injury, lost a dramatic third-set tiebreak to the USA's Govind Nanda in round three. Meanwhile, the 13-year-old fifth seed from Taiwan didn't drop a set in his six matches in Tarbes; moreover, no opponent managed to win more than four games per set from him. Tseng took the final, against Russian second seed Timofey Skatov, by a similar scoreline, 6-4 6-1. This disguises the drama of the opener, though, which saw Skatov battle to overcome a 0-5 deficit, and very nearly manage it. Tseng, however, was one of the most unflappable players in Tarbes this week, rarely displaying frustration - unusual at this age level. The relentless accuracy and depth of his groundstrokes had moved Skatov around behind the court with ease at the start of the match, but a lapse into passivity had enabled Skatov to hit some flashy winners as he mounted a comeback. At 5-4, Tseng simply resumed his aggressive play, and thereafter there were no wobbles.
Tseng had been something of an unknown quantity at the start of the week; Les Petits As marked his debut in Europe, and indeed he had only played a handful of junior events at all. His presence here was thanks to a wild card granted by tournament referee Michel Renaux, who had been impressed by Tseng's play in American junior events. Tseng, whose father works nights in a factory in order to coach his son by day, is a heartening example of a young player from a humble background being able to succeed at the highest level of junior tennis.
Both champions also competed in their respective doubles finals, though Tseng - alongside Poland's Wojciech Marek - was unable to repeat his singles win, losing 7-5 5-7 10-7 to the Romanian pairing of Nini Gabriel Dica (also a singles semi-finalist) and Filip Cristian Jianu. However Potapova, with compatriot Maria Novikova, took a second trophy home with a 6-4 6-3 win over Poles Maja Chwalinska and Iga Swiatek.
Links: Photo Gallery | lespetitsas.com
Alex Macpherson