The 14 & Under and 16 & Under ITF/Tennis Europe Grand Slam Junior Touring Teams finished their tour of Germany and Austria recently after a highly successful four weeks of competition.
The tour, which included three tournaments in Germany and one in Austria, began on 24 July with a training camp with touring team coaches Cedomir Jovanovski (MKD) and Petar Danolic (BIH). Held at the Wurttemberg Regional Tennis Centre near Stuttgart, the two-day camp gave the players and coaches the opportunity to get to know each other before the start of the tour as well as time for the coaches to set realistic goals for each of the players.
The teams consisted of Juliya Terziyska and Andre Alawi from Bulgaria, Barbare Eristavi and Nika Dolidze from Georgia, Yuriy Krivoy and Anhelina Kalinina from Ukraine, Tatjana Vorobjova from Estonia, Egehan Setkaya from Turkey, Ivan Liutarevich from Belarus and Nerma Caluk from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The teams started off well at the first tournament in Waiblingen with Nerma Caluk winning the U16 girls singles by beating the top seed Julia Sergheeva (MDA) in a dramatic final match 64 46 64. Juliya Terziyska then teamed up with Russian player Maria Marfutina to win the U14 girls’ doubles. Another notable result in this tournament was Anhelina Kalinina reaching the semi-finals in the U14 girls tournament.
The second week in Ulm saw a strong start for the teams with eight players advancing to the 3rd round. Unfortunately, at this point the weather worsened and many matches were either postponed or moved to indoor courts. The players encountered some difficulty adapting to the conditions but Yuriy Kryvoy and Andrey Alawi went on to take the U16 boys doubles trophy, and they proved to be a winning combination for the remainder of the tour.
For the third week of the tour, the teams headed for Haid in Austria where the players excelled themselves in the boys and girls U16’s tournament. Four of the team boys advanced to the semi-finals with first place going to 14 year old Ivan Liutarevich who defeated Andrey Alawi in the finals 63 36 63. In the girl’s main draw, Nerma Caluk and Tatjana Vorobjova both reached the semi-finals with Tatjana going on to win the tournament by defeating Slovakia’s Linda Hercegova 60 61 in the finals. Juliya Terziyska and Nerma Caluk defeated teammates Tatjana Vorobjova and Barbare Eristavi 64 60 to win the girls doubles event. Unfortunately, Yuriy Krivoy and Andrey Alawi were forced to default their boys doubles finals match due to a knee injury that Yuriy suffered during his semi-final singles match. This win would have meant a clean sweep for the teams of all four titles at the tournament.
The last stop was Renningen, where all ten players got through to the third round and eight progressed to the quarter-finals. The U14 girls enjoyed the most success as Kalinina reached the singles finals, beating number 1 seed Rebecca Sramkova 76(7) 75 on the way, and then winning the event with an impressive 63 62 score over Valentini Grammatikopolou from Greece. Kalinina then went on to take the girls doubles title partnering teammate Vorobjova, whilst Juliya Terziyska and her Moldovan partner reached the U16 girls doubles finals.
Coaches Petar Danolic and Cedomir Jovanovski concluded that 2010 had proved to be another successful tour and that the players had not only performed extremely well, but they had also shown great improvement in certain areas during the tour.
ITF/Tennis Europe Development Officer Hrvoje Zmajic said, “The Touring Teams are the most important part in assisting in the development of the most promising juniors from the countries which benefit from the ITF/Tennis Europe Development Programme”.