Sanchez-Casal Youth Cup, Barcelona (16 & Under, Category 1)
The boys’ and girls’ top seeds, Stefan Popovic and Nikol Palecek, have won the Sanchez Casal Youth Cup in Barcelona, with both players scoring second consecutive Category 1 wins in Spain after their triumphs two weeks ago in the same city. With their wins, the pair confirm a top 6 finish in the Race to Masters and a coveted place for each of them in the Tennis Europe Junior Tour’s season-ending finals in Reggio Calabria, Italy. In what was a great result for the Balkan nation, three of the four singles finalists came from Serbia. Popovic defeated Damien Laporte of the Seychelles, who incidentally was playing on the courts of his home academy. The girls’ final was an all-Serbian affair, with Palecek defeating her compatriot Darja Suvirdjonkova. The two also teamed up to win the girls’ doubles final.
Coming in at number five in the Race to Masters, Popovic had all but ensured his spot in Reggio Calabria. A tough three-set win over Italian qualifier Daniel Bagnolini in Round 2 followed by another three-setter against Russian eighth seed Konstantin Zhzhenov in the quarter finals put him back on track for straight sets wins in the remaining two matches - a 6-3 6-4 semifinal win over Gerard Oltra (ESP), another qualifier, followed by a 7-6(3) 6-1 win in the final over the Seychellois, who was playing in his first Category 1 final of the year. On route, the unseeded Laporte had taken out seventh seed Danilo Raicevic (MNE) as well as third seed Daniel Linkuns-Morozovs (LAT) who, although hampered by a back injury, was pleased to make it to the semi-finals and boost his chances of a spot at Reggio Calabria. Popovic, for his part, was playing in his fifth final of the year, capturing his third title. He now adds a second Category 1 title won on Spanish soil in September, and goes into the Masters as one of the in-form players.
The girls’ event saw Palecek cruise into the final, keeping clean sheets all the way to the deciding match. She saw off Ukraine’s Kateryna Lazrenko, the sixth seed, in the quarterfinals followed by Romanian third seed Maria Sara Popa in the semis. Playing her doubles partner in the final proved to be the toughest test of the tournament, as she was made to fight and claw her way back from a one-set-to-love deficit, eventually outdoing her friend 5-7 7-5 6-2. Having also won the Recent XVI Nacho Juncosa tournament in Barcelona, this is now her sixth final of the year and second win and, like compatriot Popovic, makes her one of the players to watch at the Masters. Stay tuned for important updates early next week regarding the official list of qualifiers in the Race to Masters.
As mentioned, the girls’ finalists played together in the doubles to take home another trophy. Playing as top seeds, they edged out the second-seeded pairing from the FYR Macedonia, defeating Aleksandra Simeva & Jana Stojanova 6-4 3-6 10-7 in the final. With the Masters in singles drawing near, a special mention of one of the boys’ doubles winners needs to be made. Frank Jonker has capped off an amazing year in doubles, adding another win to his collection in Barcelona. The Dutch player teamed with Czech Matthew William Donald to take the boys’ doubles title with a 4-6 6-4 10-8 thriller over on-court rivals and off-court friends Linkuns-Morozovs & Zhzhenov.
This was Jonker’s 13th Tennis Europe Junior Tour event of 2018. He has reached 12 doubles finals, with an amazing 11 different partners, racking up a tally of 10 doubles titles in total; a phenomenal success rate. There might even have been one more on this list had his partner not been injured in Warsaw, handing their opponents a walkover win in the semifinals.
There were no Category 2 events last week, but for full results from all other tournaments, please click here, or keep up with the Tour’s latest photo galleries here.