The 2019 ITF/Tennis Europe Development Championships in Antalya, Turkey have come to a close. Two successive Category 2 Tennis Europe Junior Tour tournaments over ten days have seen eight different players from four nations crowned champions.
This is a special event, devised to provide high-level international playing opportunities for top 14 & Under players, and in the past has seen players such as Simona Halep, Victoria Azarenka, Grigor Dimitrov and Marcos Baghdatis earn some of their first international ranking points. This year saw 40 players from 10 Tennis Europe member nations in action, including Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Turkey.
The Championships
Top seeded and 19th-ranked Jana Stojanova was the big winner over the two weeks, appearing in all four finals. Arguably the most experienced player in the field, having been a Category 1 doubles winner at Renningen, Germany and a week 1 finalist here in 2018, the player from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia had all the cards stacked in her favour going in to the event - and she did not disappoint. She took both singles titles as well as claiming both doubles runner-up trophies. In Week One she defeated her compatriot Iva Jovanova 6-4 7-5 in the singles final, while in the Week Two decider, she saw off Bulgarian fifth seed Aleksandra Gabrovska 7-5 6-2. In the doubles, the Macedonian pairing fell short twice, bowing to the Turkish combination of Ela Sekmen & Duru Soke in both finals.
Turk Atakan Karahan was the star of Week One, winning both the boys’ singles and doubles. He defeated second seed Kanan Gasimov of Azerbaijan in the semi-finals before scoring a come-from-behind win over Marko Stoilkovski (MKD) 5-7 6-4 6-1 in the final. He partnered compatriot Anil Ozgur to win the doubles over Bulgarians Pavel Marinov & Anas Mazdrashki. The Bulgarians got their revenge in week two, however, turning the tables on the Turks in the second final. Top seed Marinov also fared better in the singles in Week Two, making his way to the final, having fallen to Stoilkovski in the quarterfinals of the first event. He was conquered in the final by Edin Mulalic, the previous week’s semi-finalist, and another one of Stoilkovski’s victims from that week, going down 7-5 6-1 to the Bosnian.
Winners
Week 1
Boys’ singles: Atakan Karahan (TUR)
Girls’ singles: Jana Stojanova (MKD)
Boys’ doubles: Atakan Karahan & Anil Ozgur (TUR)
Girls’ doubles: Ela Sekmen & Duru Soke (TUR)
Week 2
Boys’ singles: Edin Mulalic (BIH)
Girls’ singles: Jana Stojanova (MKD)
Boys’ doubles: Pavel Marinov & Anas Mazdrashki (BUL)
Girls’ doubles: Ela Sekmen & Duru Soke (TUR)
The Development Championships were hosted by the Turkish Tennis Federation for a tenth consecutive year. This year the event was held in conjunction with a number of other development activities during a busy ten day period which also saw a 12 & Under Training Camp and an ITF Tutors’ Workshop.
Players at the Championships also had the opportunity to take part in a special session of the Tennis Europe Junior School, which continues its road trip around some of the Tour’s key events. 60 players took part in the new player education programme that has been devised by Tennis Europe in consultation with the sports other governing bodies and is aimed at preparing young athletes for their future professional careers. For further information, click here.
Full results from Antalya can be found here.