Timofey Skatov and Maja Chwalinska have been crowned as the winners of the European 16 & Under Championships, which have been held in Moscow for an eleventh consecutive year. It was a relatively easy day at the office for Skatov, backing up his claim to the top spot on the rankings and overcoming third seeded Romanian Nini Gabriel Dica in front of his home crowd. While Chwalinka was tested in the first set, she breezed through the second against unseeded Swede Caijsa Wilda Hennemann.
In the boys’ draw, the top seed Skatov proceeded seemingly unhindered right through to the final after having a bye in the first round. He systematically took out his opponents in straight sets - in the second round the Romanian Matei Georgescu, in the third round the Georgian Saba Purtseladze, and in the fourth round Chris Rodesch (LUX) heading into the quarterfinals. There, he had a tougher time against the Pole Wojciech Marek, and was pushed to three sets before coming through. Skatov was also put to the test in the semi-final against Bulgarian 16th seed Adrian Andreev.
His opponent in the final was Romanian Nini Gabriel Dica the number three seed who has had a fantastic year, winning four singles and two doubles titles, and was in fine form, having upset second seeded Czech Dalibor Svrcina in the semi-finals. Prior to that win, Dica had defeated Hugo Maia (POR), Goran Zivotic (SRB), Niklas Waldner (AUT) and Baptiste Anselmo (FRA) in straight sets wins.
It was all one-way traffic in the final, however, as the local favourite proved too strong for his Romanian opponent. Spurred on by the crowd, and with increasing confidence, Skatov went from strength to strength in his 6-3 6-1 win over his nearest rival in the Tennis Europe Junior Tour rankings.
The girls’ draw was comparatively full of surprises. Top-seeded Czech Denisa Hindova was taken out in the fourth round by Spanish player Gemma Lairon Navarro. She then managed to overcome thirteenth seeded Tennis Europe Junior Masters champion Helene Pellicano of Malta before going down to Maja Chwalinska in the quarterfinals. The Pole then took out in-form Belarusian sixth seed Viktoriya Kanapatskaya, who was battling for her second medal of the Championships, having already secured one in doubles.
Unseeded Swedish player Hennemann wreaked havoc throughout the draw knocking out seeded player after seeded player on her straight-set giant-killing spree. After a first-round bye, she took out Britain's Gemma Heath, followed by Slovenian eleventh seed Elena Milovanovic and Finnish eighth seed Oona Orpana. The unseeded Romanian Carmen Manu put up a three-set fight and offered more resistance in the quarterfinals, but another straight set win in the semi-final over Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy, secured her spot in the gold medal match.
Hennemann showed just why she had made it thus far, pushing Chwalinska to a tiebreaker in the first set. After that, it was a sprint to the finish line for the Pole, as she posted a 7-6(1) 6-0 victory for the biggest win of her young career.
There was also a wide array of flags flying on the doubles podium, with winners and runners up hailing from four different countries. Unseeded Moritz Hoffmann & Justin Schlageter of Germany took the title defeating Italians Marco Furlanetto & Michele Vianello, also unseeded, 6-3 7-6(4). In the girls’ doubles top seeded Russians, Daria Frayman and Vlada Koval, were outdone in the final by Viktoriya Kanapatskaya & Anna Kubareva of Belarus 6-2 6-1.
Draws and Results
Boys Singles | Boys Doubles | Girls Singles | Girls Doubles | Photos