Tennis Europe Junior Tour

Potapova and Tseng claim Les Petits As titles

Potapova and Tseng claim Les Petits As titles

Midway through the week of the 33rd Les Petit As in Tarbes, France, the girls' top seed Anastasia Potapova marvelled at the tournament's winners: "Everyone who wins here is a star!" She declared that "it would mean so much" for her to follow in their footsteps.

Dreams came true swiftly for the 13-year-old Russian. After a head-turning 2014 in which she compiled a 55-5 win-loss record and swept to eight titles - including both the European Junior Championships and the European Junior Masters - Potapova came into Les Petits As as the one to beat. Under pressure to take another prestigious crown, there were a couple of wobbles: in the second round, Romania's Carmen-Roxana Manu stole the second set before falling 2-6 in the third; in the quarter-finals, an ill-tempered Potapova found herself in the unusual position of going down a bagel set to Ukraine's Anna Laguza. In the final, the hard-hitting Serb left-hander Olga Danilovic powered to a 4-2 lead in the second set after losing a tight opener.

Each of these tight spots simply gave Potapova an opportunity to showcase perhaps her greatest strength: her fighting spirit. Vocal and intense even in good times, finding herself in a hole seemed to inspire Potapova to hit harder, chase shots faster and exhort herself louder. Against Laguza, she ground out a tough second set 6-3 before running away with the decider 6-1; in the final, at 2-4, deuce on her opponent's serve in the second set, Potapova came up with a brilliant dropshot-lob combination that left Danilovic in tears, and ruthlessly followed it by a big forehand return winner to break back. A few minutes later, another big forehand winner on her second match point gave her a 6-4 6-4 victory and the trophy.

Elsewhere last week's Nike Junior International Teen Tennis champion in Bolton, the USA's Caty McNally, was surprisingly upset in round three by Kamilla Rakhimova, of Russia 7-5(5) 3-6 6-3. Rakhimova also vanquished the youngest player in the quarter-finals, 12-year-old Himari Sato of Japan; Sato impressed with her ultra-aggressive game, but like McNally in the previous round, her early flashy winners turned to wild errors before the Russian's stronger consistency, and she fell 2-6 7-5 6-4.

On paper, boys' champion Chun-Hsin Tseng had a much easier path to the title. Top seed Jack Draper, of Great Britain, beset by a leg injury, lost a dramatic third-set tiebreak to the USA's Govind Nanda in round three. Meanwhile, the 13-year-old fifth seed from Taiwan didn't drop a set in his six matches in Tarbes; moreover, no opponent managed to win more than four games per set from him. Tseng took the final, against Russian second seed Timofey Skatov, by a similar scoreline, 6-4 6-1. This disguises the drama of the opener, though, which saw Skatov battle to overcome a 0-5 deficit, and very nearly manage it. Tseng, however, was one of the most unflappable players in Tarbes this week, rarely displaying frustration - unusual at this age level. The relentless accuracy and depth of his groundstrokes had moved Skatov around behind the court with ease at the start of the match, but a lapse into passivity had enabled Skatov to hit some flashy winners as he mounted a comeback. At 5-4, Tseng simply resumed his aggressive play, and thereafter there were no wobbles.

Tseng had been something of an unknown quantity at the start of the week; Les Petits As marked his debut in Europe, and indeed he had only played a handful of junior events at all. His presence here was thanks to a wild card granted by tournament referee Michel Renaux, who had been impressed by Tseng's play in American junior events. Tseng, whose father works nights in a factory in order to coach his son by day, is a heartening example of a young player from a humble background being able to succeed at the highest level of junior tennis.

Both champions also competed in their respective doubles finals, though Tseng - alongside Poland's Wojciech Marek - was unable to repeat his singles win, losing 7-5 5-7 10-7 to the Romanian pairing of Nini Gabriel Dica (also a singles semi-finalist) and Filip Cristian Jianu. However Potapova, with compatriot Maria Novikova, took a second trophy home with a 6-4 6-3 win over Poles Maja Chwalinska and Iga Swiatek.

Links: Photo Gallery | lespetitsas.com

Alex Macpherson

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