Tennis Europe Junior Tour

Krumich, Keita, Raicevic & Andreeva claim Jugend Cup honours

Krumich, Keita, Raicevic & Andreeva claim Jugend Cup honours

Held in the sister towns of Renningen and Rutesheim, the Jugend Cup combined age groups and categories for yet another year. Draws sprinkled with international flavour also served up the tops seeds for dinner, as not one of them was able to lift a winner’s trophy in any draw. Czech Martin Krumich claimed his second title of the year in the 16 & Under boys’ singles draw and in the girls’, Fatima Keita of Romania posted her maiden win of the season. In the 14 & Under draws, Danilo Raicevic of Montenegro was the boys’ champion, while Russia’s Erika Andreeva rounded out the list of singles champions.

In the 16 & Under Category 1 event, top seed Jack Pinnington-Jones of Great Britain was taken out in the third round by local player Nico Kleber, who was in turn defeated by his compatriot and eventual finalist Benedict Kurz. The German was playing his third final of the year, having already secured two wins for himself so far this season. His fourth seeded opponent, was on a very hot winning streak however. Krumich had come through to the final defeating three seeded players without dropping a set. The encounter was a tough fight, with the Czech player eventually coming out on top for a 4-6 7-5 6-4 win.

More upsets took place in the girls’ draw, with Ukrainian top seed Alina Tsyurpalevych being ousted in the semi-finals by the eventual champion Fatima Keita. The Romanian then added the second seed for good measure, taking out Anna Laura Hinka, also Ukrainian, 7-5 6-3 for the trophy. After a handful of semi-final and quarterfinal showings, Junior Masters contender Keita finally scored her first tournament win of the season.

The boys’ doubles provided a nail-biting final between Czech third seeds Alexandr Kolijev & Mathias Musil and Matvei Aleksandrov (RUS) & Mattia Bernardi (ITA), the second seeds. The Czech pair had earlier taken out the top seeds in the semi-finals, and again saw off their higher seeded opponents in a tight match 3-6 6-4 10-2. In the girls’ doubles, second seeds Stela Peeva (BUL) & Diana Shnaider (RUS) had a 6-2 6-1 win over top seeds Alejandra Ferrer Rodríguez & Klara Ondrejcekova of Spain and Slovakia respectively.

Over in the 14 & Under Category 2 event, there were more upsets in the boys’ singles. The number one seed was yet again defeated by the eventual champion, in this case in the semi-finals where Robert Korelov (RUS) bowed out to Raicevic, the third seed. The Montenegrin had a fight on his hands in the final against local fourth seed Max Hans Rehberg. With just a break in each set separating the players, the match went Raicevic’s way as he lifted the trophy after his 7-5 4-6 6-3 win. In an all-Russian girls’ final, Erika Andreeva, seeded third, wiped her top seeded compatriot off the court in the final. Diana Shnaider was no match in this contest for Andreeva, with victory earned 6-1 6-3 in convincing style. The win marks Andreeva’s third title of the season.

Korelov made up for his disappointment in the singles with a win in the doubles. He played with fellow Russian Ilya Lebedev to overcome the Italian pairing of Gabriele Datei & Enrico Lanza Cariccio in an extremely close final, clinching a win by just three points in the end, 6-2 6-7(5) 10-7. Andreeva posted a double victory by teaming up with local Mia Mack to win the girls’ doubles title 6-4 6-4 over the top seeds Arina Gamretkaia & Milena Gevorgyan.

In what is one of the tour’s longest running events, the Jugend Cup continues to go from strength to strength every year, as witnessed by the ever-increasing amount of international players in participation. This year marked the event’s 20th anniversary and boasts Swiss Belinda Bencic as a past champion. 2017 Jugend Cup Photo Gallery

For full results in all events and categories here and elsewhere from this past week, please click here, or to view the week's photo galleries, click here.

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