Spain’s tourism capital was once again the setting for the only Category 1 event of the week. The Catalan seaside city of Barcelona played host to the 16 and Under Sanchez-Casal Youth Cup, held at the academy of the same name.
The event attracted players from across Europe, and even from as far afield as Canada, Australia, China and Kenya, which made for some captivating tennis. There were some shocks in both boys’ draws as the top seeds were sent home early. On the whole, however, the tournament provided a feast of matches pitting seeds against each other in the latter rounds.
Off the bat, the top boys’ seed, Peter Sallay of Hungary, was pushed to the limit in the second set of his first round match against local Adria Fochs, a lucky loser. This early test did not bode well for Sallay as he was duly taken out by Fochs’ compatriot, and qualifier, Alvaro Fernandez in the second round. His ranking of 307 among boys did nothing to stall his progress in the tournament. In fact, as if playing with absolutely no pressure at all, he made his way to the final with commanding victories and without the loss of a set, upsetting seeded players in every round. His opponent in the final was another Spaniard, Jaime Caldes, who had also progressed to the final with straight set wins. In fact, he had lost a total of only nine games in four matches on route, including a double bagel win in the quarter finals. On a sunny morning, there was nothing Caldes could do to stop the run of Fernandez, who took the final 6-4 6-4.
The girls’ events were slightly more straightforward. Daniella Medvedeva, the top seed from Russia progressed to the final as expected. Her road to the final was quite smooth, except for a tough three-set tussle in the semis against her compatriot Oksana Selekhmeteva. In the final Medvedeva faced another compatriot, in the form of seventh seed Avelina Sayfetdinova. The number seven seed had previously defeated yet another Russian - #2 ranked 14 and Under player Daria Frayman - in the semi-final, taking a thrilling third set tie-breaker by 7 points to 4. The final was not a walk in the park for the top seed, who had to fight back from a 4-6 first set loss. Steadying her nerves on the smooth Spanish clay, she coasted home 6-2 6-1 in the second and third sets to secure a place in the Top 20 when the rankings are updated later this week.
Both singles finals were played on Saturday morning after a thunderstorm that darkened the city come Friday afternoon. Luckily, the doubles finals had already been completed. The number one seeds from Poland, Mikolaj Lorens & Mateusz Skutella, lost in the first round of the doubles to the eventual champions - the unseded pairing of Anthony Genov of Bulgaria & Canadian Alexandre Leblanc. The pair scraped through the second round with a 4-6 6-1 10-8 win. Curiously, they won the final by the exact same scoreline, adding to Caldes’ woes as he was again awarded the finalists’ trophy, with his partner and compatriot Pedro Vives. More good news for Daria Frayman, where she partnered fellow Russian Maria Nokinova to take the girls’ doubles trophy. Seeded number three, they defeated the top seeds in the semis and the number 2 seeds in the final. Frayman will definitely be leaving Barcelona with fond memories, having won the 14 & Under event at the RC Polo a fortnight ago.
It was a back to school week in many places, which meant there were fewer events than there have been of late. In other action in the 16 and Under category, there were two Category 3 tournaments played. The boys’ champion in Chisinau, Moldova was Ukrainian Alexander Vasyliev, while honours in the girls’ singles went to Ilinca Dalina Amariei of Romania. Ironically, Moldovan Mariami Akhalaia won the girls’ singles event in the other Category 3 event in Maia Portugal. Bernardo Serra Vieira pleased local fans by taking home the boys’ title.
Full results from all these tournaments as well as others played this week are listed below:
CATEGORY 1
16 AND UNDER
SÁNCHEZ-CASAL YOUTH CUP U-16 - Barcelona, Spain
Boys’ Singles Final - Alvaro FERNANDEZ HORTA d Jaime CALDES [4] 6-4 6-4
Girls’ Singles Final - Daniella MEDVEDEVA [1] d Avelina SAYFETDINOVA [7] 4-6 6-2 6-1
Boys’ Doubles Final - Anthony GENOV/Alexandre LEBLANC d Jaime CALDES [3]/Pedro VIVES MARCOS 4-6 6-1 10-8
Girls’ Doubles Final - Daria FRAYMAN [3]/Maria NOVIKOVA d Carole MONNET [2]/Oksana SELEKHMETEVA 6-7(3) 6-2 10-7
CATEGORY 3
16 AND UNDER
CHISINAU OPEN U16 - Chisinau, Moldova
Boys’ Singles Final - Alexander VASYLIEV [4] d Jakub KATUCH [3] 6-4 6-4
Girls’ Singles Final - Ilinca Dalina AMARIEI d Ana CAPAT 6-4 6-1
Boys’ Doubles Final - Ilya SNITARI [3]/Kirill SNITARI d Stefan ANDREI/Cristian NECULAIU 6-1 6-0
Girls’ Doubles Final - linca Dalina AMARIEI [3]/Raluca Maria TUDORACHE d Yeva AVETISYAN [1]/Renata FARIMA 6-1 7-5
MAIA JUNIOR CUP - Maia, Portugal
Boys’ Singles Final - Bernardo SERRA VIEIRA [4] d Pedro ARAUJO [14] 6-2 6-7(5) 6-2
Girls’ Singles Final - Mariami AKHALAIA [3] d Leonor OLIVEIRA [5] 6-2 6-2
Boys’ Doubles Final - Manuel MONTEIRO [8]/Tomas PINHO d Ivan KAZAKOV/Guilherme MARQUES - 6-2 6-3
Girls’ Doubles Final - Carolina CARDOSO [1]/Maria Ines FONTE d Madalena PENEDA [3]/Melody TODOROVA 6-2 6-0
14 AND UNDER
KYIV OPEN BY BABOLAT - Kiev, Ukraine
Boys’ Singles Final - Viacheslav BIELINSKYI [1] d Mykhailo MOSSUR [5] 6-3 6-2
Girls’ Singles Final - Anna Laura HINKA [1] d Anna PARKHOMENKO 6-1 6-2
Boys’ Doubles Final - Viacheslav BIELINSKYI [1]/German SAMOFALOV d Mikhail DUBROUSKI [2]/Artem PODOROZHNYI 3-6 6-0 10-7
Girls’ Doubles Final - Katerina GREBENIK/Anna PARKHOMENKO d Eva PROKOPENKO [2]/Alina TSYURPALEVYCH 7-6(7) 7-6(4)
12 AND UNDER
TENNIS CLUB TROPHY U12 - Bucharest, Romania
Boys’ Singles Final - Svetlin KEREMEDCHIEV d Andrei VOICAN 6-2 6-1
Girls’ Singles Final - Alexandra PETRIC d Oana Bianca MARINESCU 6-2 6-2
Boys’ Doubles Final - Alin Mihai FATU/Andrei VOICAN d Adriano DZHENEV/Viktor MARKOV 6-1 4-6 10-4
Girls’ Doubles Final - Iulia Andreea IONESCU/Alexandra PETRIC d Iulia GHERMAN/Alessia POPESCU 6-2 6-2