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| 19 Jan 2001 | |
| Stong Field for Aussie Open 2001 by Kim Trengove |
While many of last season’s top juniors make the transition to senior ranks, the newest new balls will be bouncing into action at the Australian Open Junior Championships, beginning Monday. Each year the field in Melbourne grows in strength, thanks to a top class lead-in circuit beginning in country Traralgon at the Grade 2 Victorian Junior Championships, followed by the Australian Hardcourt Championships at Nottinghill-Pinewood.
This year’s boys’ line-up is particularly strong with five of the world’s top ten juniors on show, including the new ITF No.1 ranked Janko Tipsarevic from Yugoslavia, No.3 Roman Valent of Switzerland and America’s next big hope, Ytai Abougzir. On the home front, Todd Reid is favoured to present the biggest challenge and become the first Australian boy to win his country’s Open Junior Championship title since Ben Ellwood in 1994.
There is a growing buzz surrounding Reid, who for the past three years has been training at Nick Bollettieri’s Tennis Academy in Florida, as has fellow Aussie Adam Kennedy. Reid’s still only 16, is now ranked No.24 in the world and was a gold medallist at the NEC World Youth Cup last year with teammates Raphael Durek and Ryan Henry. A winner of three junior tournaments last August, he kicked off 2001 by completely crushing 17-year-old Matija Zgaga from Slovenia 6-2, 6-1 to win the Victorian Junior Championships. Reid was handed a wildcard into the Australian Open qualifying round, but fell to German Tomas Behrend, who went on to qualify for the main draw.
Such is the fine line between juniors and the men’s pro tennis. All eyes will be on Giovanni Lapentti, younger brother of Ecuadorian heart-throb Nicolas, and one who has already proven himself in senior ranks by lifting his country into the Davis Cup World Group when he defeated Arvind Parmar in a fifth set decider against Great Britain in the qualifying round last July. Consequently, the Lapentti brothers will face Australia on grass in Perth early February, so Giovanni aims to spend as much time playing competitively Down Under as he can.
In the absence of top-ranked Argentine Maria Emilia Salerni and last year’s Australian Open Junior Champion Aniko Kapros, the girls’ tournament will be hotly contested by 16-year-old Lenka Dlhopolcova from the Slovak Republic and 15-year-old old Jelena Jankovic, ranked No.8 in the world and winner of the Grade 1 23rd International Casablanca-Pepsi Max Tennis Junior Cup at Christmas.
At this stage, French girl Marion Bartoli is a stand-out favorite despite her lower world ranking of No.19. Bartoli, 16, has been winning matches since December 18 when she took out the Grade 1 14th Yucatan Cup in Mexico. She defeated higher-ranked Sofia Arvidsson and Dlhopolcova to win the Victorian Junior Championships advancing through to the semi-finals of the Australian Hardcourt championships with a second win over Dlhopolcova. A double-handed baseliner, Bartoli’s main attribute is her fighting spirit. "The fight she’s got reminds me of Lleyton Hewitt," observed Australian Open tournament director David Drysdale, adding that "she’s also like Monica Seles."
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