Tennis Europe Junior Tour

Mixed fortunes for seeds on first day of Junior Masters

Mixed fortunes for seeds on first day of Junior Masters

There were mixed fortunes for the seeded players on the opening day of the Tennis Europe Junior Masters in Reggio Calabria.

The 14 & Under age group was the first to take to the court, with an upset in the very first match. Daniel Michalski of Poland outlasted Russia’s Egor Noskin 3-6 6-0 6-2 to book a spot in the boys’ semifinals. “I played pretty bad in the first and my opponent played maybe the best tennis of his life,” he said. “After that I was much better. There was a very important game at 2-1 in the third set and I had to fight very hard but that was the key. I feel very good to have won the match and hope the next one will be better.”

Michalski will play Marko Miladinovic in Saturday’s semifinal. The Serb recovered from the loss of the second set to beat another Russian, Yan Bondarevskiy, 6-3 2-6 6-4.

Top seed Alexey Zakharov restored Russian pride by breezing past Stefan Palosi 6-4 6-3. He will face Germany’s Nicola Kuhn in the semi-finals. Kuhn, a winner at both the Winter and Summer Cups this season, survived a first set tie break before accelerating past Britain’s Jake Hersey, 7-6(2) 6-4.

Selma Cadar of Romania was the first girl to advance, posting a 6-3 7-6(0) win over Poland’s Ania Hertel after saving five set points in the second set. She later commented, “The match was pretty hard. I played aggressive but had some moments when I was not really on the court. I’m trying to work on my concentration but it’s difficult so I hope to do better in my next match.”

Cadar will next play Adela Joldic – one of three players from Bosnia & Herzegovina to qualify for this year’s Masters, who eased past second seed Tatiana Makarova of Russia 7-5 6-4 to advance to the semi-finals.

There was drama in the top half of the draw as #1 seed Anastasia Potapova of Russia fought back from the loss of a first set tie break to outlast Mihaela Marculescu of Romania 6-7(4) 7-5 7-6(0) in a three-hour marathon. Despite feeling unwell, Potapova rallied from 5-6 down in the third set to win the last 11 points of the match, hitting a series of spectacular winners.

She will play Barcelona-based Briton Francesca Jones on Saturday. Jones took full advantage of her late entry to the competition by conceding just four games to Sofya Lansere of Russia.

16 & Under

Top seed Mate Valkusz of Hungary launched his campaign to become just the third player ever to defend the 16 & Under with a 6-1 6-1 win over Mikalai Haliak of Belarus. He’ll next play Rrezart Cungu of Montenegro who edged Sanin Zukic (BIH) 7-5 7-6(5).  

In the bottom half of the draw, Bojan Jankulovski ended Gabriel Huber’s 24-match Tennis Europe Junior Tour win streak with a 6-2 7-6 victory. The Macedonian player is looking to win a tour-leading sixth singles title this season, and next plays Vladyslav Lobak (UKR), a three-set winner over Maxim Tybar (BLR). Jankulovski declared himself happy with his performance, having fought back from a 2-5 defecit in the second set, saying “When you are down, like I was at 2-5, you have to be positive and fight for every point, and that’s what I did. The Masters is such a strong event; there are only eight players and everyone is good, so you know every match is going to be tough.”

There were two upsets in the girls’ event; Eva Marie Voracek of Germany took out top seed Zinovia Vaneva (BUL) 6-1 7-5, while second seed Ekaterina Vishnevskaya fell 6-1 6-4 to Csenge Furak. The Hungarian was delighted with her win, explaining with a smile; “This is the first time I have played at the Junior Masters. I was very excited, I didn’t know what I could do, but I came to play my own game. I love Italy, I love playing tournaments and I’m having a very good time.”

Furak next plays Kristina Miletic of Serbia, who recovered from a nightmare start to beat Daria Solovyeva of Russia 0-6 6-4 6-2. The day’s final result saw Elizaveta Voldoko of Russia come back from a set down to end the hopes of Nefisa Bererovic (BIH) 5-7 6-3 6-4 and book her semi-final spot against Voracek.  

Organisers have scheduled Saturday’s semi-finals for 9am in an attempt to beat the heavy rain forecast for the afternoon. 

Draws and Schedule

Boys 14 & Under | Girls 14 & Under

Boys 16 & Under | Girls 16 & Under

Order of Play

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