Last week the Tennis Europe Junior Tour played host to ten tournaments across three age categories and saw notable results from some of the leading lights of the circuits as the clay court season gets into full swing.
14 & Under
The 21st PSS Piestany Cup in Slovakia was the week’s sole Category 1 event, and attracted a strong draw with 120 valuable ranking points available to the singles champions. The top two seeds advanced to the boys’ final, with European #5 Rudolf Molleker (GER) taking on #4 Tomas Jirousek (CZE). Both players were looking to keep impressive win streaks alive, with each having won their last Category 1 tournaments (Molleker at Tim Essonne in March, and Jirousek last week in Rakovnik). In the end it was Molleker, a member of the winning German Winter Cups by HEAD team, who emerged victorious after a fairly straightforward 6-2 6-4 win to claim his third title of the year.
All of the other events were dominated by Czech players; Jan Jermar & Ondrej Styler won the boys’ doubles over Dominik Jedlicka (CZE) & Karol Paluch (POL), while Sabina Drabkova & Anna Siskova won an all-Czech girls’ final over Valentina Cvackova & Dagmar Zdrubecka. Anna Kynclova put in an impressive performance to win the girls’ singles, beating the top three seeds (#1 Irina Cantos Siemers (GER), #3 Francesca Jones (GBR) and #2 Lucie Kankova (CZE)) in her final three matches, all in straight sets. Both singles finals were played indoors due to rain. Photos.
Timofey Skatov of Russia capped a productive fortnight in Montenegro by winning a second title in eight days. Having triumphed in Ulcinj last week, Skatov won both singles and doubles at the Category 3 Montengro Cup in Niksic. Seeded #1, he beat France’s Alexandre Doan Van 6-3 7-5 for the singles crown, and partnered compatriot Rail Ibragimov to the doubles title. The girls’ events also saw a dual champion, as Draginja Vukovic of Serbia teamed up with Australia’s Stephanie Belovukovic for the doubles win before going on to beat fellow Serb Andjela Skrobonja and lift the singles trophy.
All four singles finalists at the Category 3 Lodz Cup in Poland ended up winners’ trophies. How? When boys’ champion Tomasz Dudek (POL) beat Jakob Huetten (GER) in the singles final, the pair had already claimed the doubles crown together. The same situation occurred in the girls’ event, where Julia Oczachowska (POL) beat the player she had teamed up with to win the doubles – Emma Zakordoniec (POL) – to earn the singles title.
Stefan Palosi has been on a roll in recent weeks and is climbing the rankings fast. Having reached the final of the Heraklion event in early April, he went on to win back-to-back titles in Athens and Trnava, and last week went on to complete a hat trick at the Sport Palace Cup in Sliven, Bulgaria. He breezed through the tournament without losing a set and increased his win streak to 16 matches with a 6-4 6-1 win over second seed Danko Jordanov (BUL) in the final. Jordanov also reached the doubles final with Ivailo Keremedchiev, but lost an all-Bulgarian battle to Yoan Georgiev & Simon Ivanov 6-1 4-6 [10-8].
The girls’ event saw a home victory as Simona Borisova conceded just three games to Moldova’s Vitalia Stamat. Stamat had earlier claimed the doubles trophy with another Bulgarian, Gergana Topalova.
The Category 3 Torneo Internazionale Brindisi saw two double home winners as Riccardo Perin and Lisa Piccinietti each claimed singles and doubles titles. A semi-finalist in Pavia last week, Perin continued his good form, beating Gabriele Bosio 6-1 6-3 in the boys’ final and teaming with Riccardo di Nocera to win the doubles. Meanwhile, eighth seed Piccinetti won the girls’ event without conceding a set, though she was pushed close in a 7-6(2) 6-0 win over Giulia La Rocca in the final. The previous day, Piccinetti and Gaia Bandini had won the doubles, recovering to score a 2-6 6-3 [10-7] victory over the top seeds Linda Cagnazzo & Alessia Truden.
Combined Events
There were two combined 14 and 16 & under events held last week, in Azerbaijan and Slovenia.
The bigger of the two, in terms of draw size and points offered, was the Category 2 Grawe Open in Maribor, Slovenia, where the eight eventual titles were split between players from four countries. British players dominated the boys’ 14 & Under event, with Emile Hudd managing to win both singles and doubles titles. He beat third seed Yan Bondarevsky (RUS) 7-5 6-1 in the singles final and teamed up with Jack Draper to win an all-British doubles final over Bradley Buckland & Harry Butler.
Tamara Arnold secured two titles for Switzerland, teaming with Germany’s Carmen Schultheiss to win the girls’ 16 & Under doubles over Helena Jansen Figueras (ESP) & Christina Wolfgruber (AUT) and then going on to beat her doubles partner for the singles title. All of the remaining titles were won by Slovenian players; Grega Kokalj upset fourth seed Andrey Chepelev (RUS) for the boys 16 & Under singles, while Nejc Sitar & Jernej Zaplotnik took the doubles. Kaja Juvan won an all-Slovenian girls 14 & Under singles final against Nika Radisic, who then returned to court for the doubles final where she and Tina Cvetkovic outlasted top seeds Anja Gal & Kristina Novak 6-3 3-6 [12-10] to lift the trophy.
The Category 3 Pasha Bank Cup in Baku saw an international draw with players from four different continents in action. Having won his first Tennis Europe Junior Tour title at last week’s Baku event, Dostanbek Tashbulatov of Kazakhstan underlined his good form by beating Osman Torski (GER) to win the boys’ 14 & Under singles and teaming with fellow-Kazakh Rodion Pak to win the doubles. Turkish wild-card Zeynep Ozturk claimed the girls’ title with a 6-2 6-2 win over Russia’s Aisha Kukushkina, while the doubles went to Georgian-Russian partners Ana Makatsaria & Anna Solovyeva.
There was further success to come for Georgia in the 16 & Under events, with players from the country having a hand on all four trophies. Ana Mujiri beat Miriam Dalakishvili in an all-Georgian girls’ singles final, before teaming up with Zhibek Kulambayeva (KAZ) to add the doubles. The boys’ singles went to second seed Nikoloz Davliandize who scored a 6-2 6-2 upset win over Anatoll Rainin of Ukraine. Rainin had earlier secured the doubles title with yet another Georgian, Irakli Metreveli.
16 & Under
Home players dominated the Category 3 Kfar Maccabiah Lod Open to such an extent that only one non-Israeli player reached the final of any event of the hard court tournament. Russia’s Sofya Dobronevskaya certainly made her mark though, as the top seed scored a 6-2 6-3 win over Noya Ohana to secure her first 16 & Under title. Ohana had earlier teamed up with Maya Tahan for victory in the doubles.
Wild card Omer Hefez had not played on the Tennis Europe Junior Tour since last year’s European 14 & under Championships, but showed he wasn’t rusty by blasting his way past the first and fourth seeds en route to the final, where he scored a come-from-behind 4-6 6-4 6-1 win over qualifier Yoav Nir, with whom he had already teamed up to win the doubles. Photos.
12 & Under
Two 12 & under events were also held this week. The Daimon Cup in Bucharest (ROU) saw home players dominate the boys’ event. Radu Papoe extended his winning streak to 10 matches by claiming his second consecutive tournament title. He beat Germany’s Moritz Stoeger 4-6 6-2 6-4 to take the singles title and also reached the all-Romanian doubles final alongside Nicholas Ionel but was pipped to the title by Sebastian Gima & Bogdan Manole after an exhausting 7-5 5-7 [10-8] match.
The girls’ event saw a disappointing conclusion when qualifier Federica Sacco of Italy was handed the title when Selena Janicijevic of France was forced to withdraw with an injury. Sacco also reached the doubles final with local partner Fatima Keita, but the pair lost to Latvia sisters Darja & Marija Semenistaja, who recovered from a set down to claim a 4-6 7-6 [10-0] win.
Players from the Balkan countries walked away with the four trophies at the Nestle Ice Cream Serbia Open in Prokuplje, with both singles winners claiming their first ever Tennis Europe Junior Tour titles. In an all-Serbian boys’ final, Ilija Zorova beat Goran Zivotic 6-3 6-1, while Andjela Vidovic completed a Serbian sweep by beating Avelina Sayfetdinova (RUS) 6-4 1-6 6-2 for the girls’ title. Doubles titles went to Gjorgji Jankulovski (MKD) & Simeon Terziev (BUL) and Andjela Lopicic & Nadja Nonkovic (SRB).
The Tennis Europe Junior Tour marches on this week with eight more events in Estonia, Iceland, Israel, Moldova, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey. You can keep up with all the latest results here.