France and Hungary have won the 16 & Under Summer Cups titles to complete sweeps of the 2014 European team competitions in this age category and confirm their places amongst the tournament favourites at next month’s Junior Davis and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas finals in Mexico.
Hosting the final rounds of the event in Budapest for the first time, the Hungarians made the most of their home support throughout the week, coming from behind to win their opening tie against Great Britain and surviving another decisive doubles match in the semi-final with Belarus.
Ironically, the final turned out to be their easiest encounter of the whole tournament. Dalma Galfi put the top seeds ahead with a routine 6-3 6-4 win over France’s Tessah Andrianjafitrimo in a match that lasted just over an hour.
Fresh from winning the European 16 & Under Championships in Moscow last week, Fanny Stollar then added another milestone to her increasingly impressive junior career. She was made to work much harder than her team-mate by Lucie Wargnier, who snatched the first set on a tie-break, but came back strongly in the last two sets to emerge a 6-7(4) 6-3 6-2 winner.
Hungary’s girls are enjoying unprecedented success in 2014. Having won the Tennis Europe Winter Cups by HEAD in February for a second time, this win represents the first time that the national team has won the Summer title. In addition to Stollar’s European Championships singles win, she and Galfi also teamed up to claim the gold medal in doubles in Moscow.
The runner-up spot also marked progress for the French team, who surprisingly have not triumphed in the Girls 16 & Under event since 1994, and had appeared in the final only once since, in 1996.
France also managed a home win by claiming the boys’ Borotra Cup title in Le Touquet with a similarly one-sided win over Germany.
The two teams had contrasting paths to the final. France beat Sweden in their opening match, which included a repeat win for Corentin Moutet over Mikael Ymer, with the two playing for the second time in two weeks after facing off in the European Championships final. The hosts then went on to beat Estonia 3/0 to claim a berth in the final and a chance of earning a record tenth Borotra Cup title.
Germany had caused shocked fourth seeds and defending champions Russia in the quarterfinals, reversing a defeat in last year’s championship match, and went on to upset second seeds Italy in the semi-finals.
After play was washed out by rain on the final morning, Ugo Humbert put the hosts ahead with a hard-fought 6-2 4-6 6-3 win over Daniel Altmaier. Moutet then stepped up in his now familiar role of French #1 and showed no mercy to Valentin Guenther, conceding just two games to secure the title and join an elite band of players to win the European individual and team championships back-to-back.
The win marks the sixth time that the French 16 & Under team has swept both the Winter and Summer Cups titles in the same season, and the fifth such occasion since 2005.
Full results and photos can be found below. The top five boys’ and top six girls’ Summer Cups teams qualify for the Junior Davis and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas finals in Mexico next month.
16 & Under Girls - Summer Cup
Draw | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Photos
Final Standings:
1. Hungary
2. France
3. Russia
4. Belarus
5. Slovakia
6. Slovenia
7/8. Great Britain vs. Italy
16 & Under Boys - Borotra Cup
Draw | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Photos
Final Standings:
1. France
2. Germany
3. Estonia
4. Italy
5. Sweden
6. Poland
7. Russia
8. Hungary