Spain (boys) and Belgium (girls) have been crowned this year’s 14&U Summer Cups champions. This is the seventh win for Spain and second for Belgium in this age category of the European Junior Team Championships, with Belgium’s previous win coming in 1996 thanks to a team that included future world #1s Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin.
Spain was too strong for Slovakia in the boys’ final in Valencia, winning the two singles matches, while unseeded Belgium caused another upset to down the British girls, recovering from from a 0-1 deficit to win the tie 2/1 in Loano.
Spain’s Road to Gold:
R1 Qualifying d. Ukraine 2-1; R2 d. Portugal 3-0; Final: lost to Germany 1-2
QF Final Rounds d. Netherlands 2-0; SF d. Austria 2-1; F d. Slovakia 2-1.
Due the extreme heat and the temperatures reaching 38ºC in Valencia, play started at 8:30 even though the thermometer was already at 27ºC early in the morning. First up was Pepe Garcia who had also been in sizzling form, undefeated in Valencia during the qualifying as well as the final rounds. He lost his first set of the final rounds to Andrej Adamovic but recovered well to dominate the third set and put Spain ahead with a 6-3 3-6 6-0 win.
Post-match, Garcia was exuberant regarding his win and steadfast in his belief in his teammate, “I’m very happy… I played at a very high level. My opponent played well in the second set but I’m so happy and (for the second match) Stefan plays so well, I think he can win!”
Stefan Shangichev put day two’s disappointing singles loss behind him to regroup and score a straight sets win over Max Lorincik, 6-3 6-1. “I got over my loss (yesterday) by going to the hotel with my coach, we relaxed and got ready for this match. Today was incredible, the atmosphere here in Valencia … it was very hot but to all the people supporting me: thanks to everybody!”
The win secured a successful title defence for the hosts, Spain. The team survived a nail biting semi-final on Tuesday, when Shangichev and partner Jaime Alcaraz Garfia edged a champion’s tie-break to beat Moritz Freitag & Jakob Mittermayr and secure a 2/1 win over Austria. Notably, Jaime’s older brother Carlos Alcaraz, the world #2, played on a winning Spanish Copa del Sol team, back in 2017.
Belgium’s Road to Gold
R1 Qualifying Bye; R2 def France 3-0; Qualifying Final lost to Great Britain 1-2
QF Final Rounds d. Sweden 2-1; SF d. Czechia 2-1 F d. Great Britain 2-1
Going into the final day, both teams were looking to win the Europa Cup title for just a second time in their 45-year history: Belgium won in 1996 as mentioned, and Great Britain took the title in 2012, the only previous finals appearance for each team.
In Wednesday’s final, Grace Watson – currently ranked #2 in the Race to Monte-Carlo - took just an hour and 16 minutes to post a 6-3 6-2 win over Fin Gybels. The two had faced off in the qualifying rounds where Watson was undefeated in singles and she kept this form going for a third straight sets win in the final rounds.
Ranked just outside the top ten at #13, Hannelore Daniels kept the Belgians in the final with a 6-4 6-4 win over #3 Liv Zingg. In the deciding doubles rubber Noor Ceulemans joined Daniels to play against Watson and Zingg. Locked at one set all the championship tie-break would decide it all: in the end, the match and the title went to the Belgians with a 2-6 6-3 10-6 win, reversing their loss to Great Britain at the qualifying rounds in Lucciana less than a week ago.
Final Standings and ITF Finals Qualification
A total of 67 national teams competed at eight different qualifying venues, with Rakovnik (CZE) and Gaziantep (TUR) hosting both boys’ and girls’ qualifying. Four nations - Austria, Czechia, Germany and Türkiye - qualified for both the boys' and girls' final rounds. Both final round venues also hosted special sessions of the Tennis Europe Junior School.
Photos from the Final Rounds can be found here (boys) and here (girls).
The 14 & Under Summer Cups tournament also serves as European qualifying for the ITF World Junior Tennis Finals in Prostejov (CZE) in August. Hosts Czechia will be joined by the top 5 teams (in bold) at the world championship event:
| |
BOYS 14&U |
GIRLS 14&U |
| 1 |
SPAIN |
BELGIUM |
| 2 |
SLOVAKIA |
GREAT BRITAIN |
| 3 |
GERMANY |
CZECHIA |
| 4 |
AUSTRIA |
AUSTRIA |
| 5 |
FRANCE |
SWEDEN |
| 6 |
CZECHIA |
ROMANIA |
| 7 |
NETHERLANDS |
GERMANY |
| 8 |
TÜRKIYE |
TÜRKIYE |