Following last week’s season-ending Tennis Europe Junior Masters tournament, the organisation has published the final Tennis Europe Junior Tour rankings lists of the year.
2014 marked another year of consolidation for the Tour, with over 10,000 participants in action at 342 tournaments split across three age groups (12, 14 and 16 & under) and staged in 45 of the European Federation’s 49 member nations.
3 of the 4 newly-crowned Junior Masters champions ended the season as the #1-ranked players in their age categories.
Groundbreaking achievements are becoming second-nature to Mate Valkusz. Three days after becoming the first player to successfully defend the 16 & Under Junior Masters title, the Hungarian becomes the first player ever to end two successive seasons as Europe’s 16 & Under #1. Valkusz edges Masters runner-up Bojan Jankulovski into second place, with the Macedonian player becoming the first from his nation ever to end the season ranked in the Top 3.
The 16 & Under girls rankings are a novelty, with two players ending the season with the same amount of ranking points. Junior Masters champion Kristina Miletic of Serbia and runner-up Eva Marie Voracek of Germany each hold 1020 points and thus share the #1 ranking. It is the first time in the 24-year history of the Tennis Europe Junior Tour rankings that two players have topped the year-end rankings in this way.
Anastasia Potapova of Russia has dominated the Girls’ 14 & Under circuit throughout the season and extended her position at #1 by adding the Junior Masters title to her European Championship crown last week to lead an all-Russian Top 3 ahead of Olesya Pervushina and Tatiana Makarova.
European Champion Tomas Jirousek ends the year as the Boys 14 & Under #1, the first Czech boy to do so since Dusan Lojda in 2002. He finishes just ahead of Russia’s Alen Avidzba and German pair Rudolf Molleker & Nicola Kuhn, who have dominated the team events this season.
The full final 2014 rankings lists can be found below, while the those of previous years (1990-2013) can be found here. No rankings are published for the 12 & Under age group.
2014 Year-End Rankings
Boys 14 | Boys 16 | Girls 14 | Girls 16