The 2014 ITF/Tennis Europe 14 & Under Development Championships took place in Antalya, Turkey from 13 - 23 March. The event, which was hosted by the Turkish Tennis Federation, attracted players from 15 countries and took the form of a one-day training camp followed by two consecutive Category 2 Tennis Europe Junior Tour tournaments with a rest day in between the two events.
Top seed Daniela Vismane (LAT) dominated the first girls’ event, reaching the finals without dropping a set. In the finals she won comfortably against the tournament’s fourth seed, Ana Shanidze (GEO) 6-2 6-2. Danils Batmanovs (LAT) was the only one of the top four boys’ seeds to reach the semi-finals, where he beat Lukas Tomic (BIH) for the loss of just three games. In the upper half of the draw Anton Magnusson (ISL) scored a series of upsets, first taking out top seeded Georgian NIkoloz Davlianidze 6-2 6-3 before going on to beat Annei Laska (BLR) in the semi-finals 6-3 6-3. Magnusson looked set to wrap up the perfect week, taking the first of the final 6-3, but Batmanovs came back strongly to win the next twelve games and complete a 3-6 6-0 6-0 victory.
In doubles event Batmanovs teamed up with his Latvian compatriot Teodors Pukshe and added another title by winning against Davlianidze & Zura Tkemaladze (GEO). In the girls doubles finals, Marija Elenova & Darija Krzovska (MKD) won against Miriam Dalikishvili & Ana Shanidze (GEO) after a long battle which went to a deciding tie-breaker, 6-2 6-7(5) [10-4].
The second week saw Adela Joldic (BIH) end Vismane’s winning run in the girls’ competition, overcoming the top seed 6-2 5-7 6-3 in a long and exhausting match. Adela proved her stamina the next day by going on to claim the title after another long match, in which she came back from the brink of defeat to outlast Vitalia Stamat (MDA) 4-6 7-6(5) 6-2. The second boys’ event was dominated by Georgian players. Nikoloz Davlianidze recovered from the disappointment of his early loss in week 1 to beat compatriot Zura Tkemaladze. The pair also teamed up again to take the doubles title with a 6-2 7-5 win over Moldovans Vasilii Dontu & Alexandr Vitcov 62 75. The girls’ event saw Macedonians Elena & Krzovska maintain their winning run, claiming a second successive title with a 7-6 6-4 win over Bosnia’s Adela Joldic & Laura Tomic (BIH).
ITF/Tennis Europe Development Officer Hrvoje Zmajic was in attendance at the event, and commented; “Thanks to the ITF/Tennis Europe Development Programme, these Championships have once again helped players from a number of our smaller nations to compete against high quality opposition. The facilities here in Antalya are first class and with ten matches over ten days, all of the players and coaches have been able to make the most of the opportunity to work on their games and gain valuable international experience.”
A number of today’s top professionals, including Victoria Azarenka, Simona Halep and Grigor Dimitrov have benefitted from playing the event in the past. Full draws and results from the tournaments can be found by clicking the tournament links on the right hand side of the page.