The week’s main event for 14 & Under players was Les Petits As in Tarbes, regarded as the world’s toughest indoor tournament for the age group. Despite a strong contingent of North American players making the trip for back-to-back category 1 events here and in Bolton last week, two European players emerged to contest the boys’ final.
France’s Rayane Roumane (pictured) thrilled the home crowds with a sensational run to the boys’ title. Having ended the title hopes of European #1 Alen Avidzba (RUS) on the way to the final, he looked to have run out of steam as his final opponent, Bolton champion Nicola Kuhn built a 7-5 4-2 lead and looked poised to win his second Category 1 event in successive weeks. Responding to the crowd’s support, unseeded Roumane found another level to fight back to take the second set from his German opponent 7-5 before racing to a 6-1 win in the third after almost two hours of play.
The win capped a dream week for Roumane, who had earlier won the doubles alongside compatriot Hugo Gaston over Czech pair Ezven Holis & Tomas Jirousek. Ranked just #521 at the start of the week, Roumane’s only previous appearance at a 14 & Under Tennis Europe Junior Tour event was a second-round loss at Tarbes last year. Now the 13-year old’s name appears alongside former winners such as Rafael Nadal, Richard Gasquet and Juan Carlos Ferrero.
In the girls’ event, Canada’s Bianca Vanessa Andreescu won her first category 1 title with an impressive win over the Orange Bowl champion, sixth seed Claire Liu (USA) in the final. Always comfortable playing on European soil, Andreescu claimed her fourth 14 & under Tennis Europe Junior Tour singles crown to cap a productive fortnight in which she also won the doubles at the Teen Tennis event in Bolton. Sadly for her, Andreescu fell just short claiming all the silverware as she and compatriot Maria Tanasescu lost 6-2 6-3 to top seeded Russians Olesya Pervushina & Anastasia Potapova in the doubles final.
The tournament in Tarbes also features a wheelchair tennis event, the Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters, where both of the 2012 singles champions managed to retain their titles. Britain’s Alfie Hewett won the boys’ singles for a third time, thanks to a 6-1 6-4 win over Martin de la Puente (ESP) and also recorded his third doubles win, pairing with Nico Langmann (AUT) to take the title.
Diede de Groot of the Netherlands put in a dominant performance to concede just one game to Russia’s world #2 Viktoriia Lvova in the girls’ final. One day earlier she had teamed up with Mariska Venter (RSA) to beat Lvova and partner Lisbeth Soto River (MEX) by the same score.
At the Category 2 Smena Cup in Minsk, Amadatus Admiraal continued his perfect start to the season, wrapping up a second consecutive title. Having won last week’s Narva Cup as a qualifier Admiraal picked up where he left off, blasting through the draw without losing a set and allowing his final opponent Artsiom Bardzin (BLR) just four games. Admiraal now has an 11-0 win/loss record this year and will shoot into the Top 50 from his current position of #80 when the rankings are updated.
The girls’ event saw an all-Russian final as Anastasia Kharitonova beat Maria Solnyshkina to win her first Tennis Europe Junior tour title. Later that day Kharitonova returned to the court to add the doubles title in memorable fashion. Teaming with Daria Lukyanova (RUS), she eventually claimed the victory with a marathon 6-4 6-7(3) 15-13 win over Belarusians Karina Dudko & Yuliya Hatouka.
The boys’ doubles also saw a Russian pair triumph over home players as Tamerlan Jhabrailov & Danil Spasibo beat Martin Borisiouk & Kirill Yarmoshuk 6-4 2-6 10-4.
Top seed Alexander Ovcharov had a productive time at the week’s only 16 & Under event, the Vsevolozhsk Cup, where we walked away with both the singles and doubles titles. He faced Russian compatriot Nikita Mishin in both finals, winning the singles 6-2 6-2 and teaming with Renat Sahabutdinov to beat Mishin & Artem Dacenko in the doubles. Ovcharov has now won three of his last four tournaments on the Tennis Europe Junior Tour, stretching back to last summer.
There was further success for the host nation in the girls’ competitions, as third seed Elena Rybakina breezed through the singles draw without losing a set. In the final she ended the run of fellow Russian Svetlana Maslova, who reached the final as a qualifier, taking out fourth seed Anna Makarova and second seed Tatiana Nikolaeva on the way. The win is a first 16 & Under title for Rybakina, who qualified for last year’s Tennis Europe Junior Masters after winning three 14 & under events in 2013.
In the girls’ doubles final, Darina Leonenko & Anastasia Sukhotina (RUS) survived a champion’s tie break to beat Eva Alexandrova (BLR) & Maria Galiy (RUS).
Many of Europe’s top 12 & Under players were in action for the qualifying rounds of the Tennis Europe Winter Cups by HEAD. The teams to advance to the final rounds in a fortnight’s time are as follows:
Boys: Belarus, Croatia, France, Serbia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Romania, Russia
Girls: Belgium, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine.
This week sees the conclusion of the qualifying rounds, as the 14 and 16 & under teams begin their quests for the 2014 Winter Cups titles.