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| 08 Mar 2002 | |
| Who will take the fruits at the 2002 Banana Bowl? |
If confirmation were needed of the importance of the Grade A Banana Bowl in Brazil, a glance at the names of past champions is all that is required. The roll of honour includes greats such as John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Gabriela Sabatini and Gustavo Kuerten. More recently the Banana Bowl has become the stepping stone to the title of junior World Champion. For the past two years the Banana Bowl champion in both boys and girls events has gone on to take the world champion title; Andy Roddick and Maria Emilia Salerni in 2000 and Gilles Muller and Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2001.
South America has a strong showing in this year’s boys’ singles main draw with Brian Dabul from Argentina heading the field. The current World Junior No.1, Dabul will be favourite to go one better than his runner up spot last year.
Uruguay will be well represented by Marcel Felder and Martin Vilarrubi who have already taken five titles between them in 2002 on the ITF junior circuit. Felder, the Uruguayan No.1 and currently No.5 in the ITF junior rankings, won the first Grade A title of the year at the Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica. Two weeks ago he added the Grade 1 Asuncion Bowl title to his collection. Compatriot Martin Vilarrubi has made quite an impact on the ITF junior circuit this year winning two Grade 1 titles and one Grade 2 taking his total haul of titles to five and catapulting him into the top ten rankings.
Lamine Ouahab is the second highest ranked player in the draw at No.4. The African Junior Champion enjoys the slow clay surface having reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros last year. However, despite having performed well at many Grade A events, reaching the last eight at the US Open and Australian Open and the semi-finals in Japan and Italy, he has yet to make the breakthrough to take a title, so will be extra hungry for success in Brazil.
Brazil’s top hope will be in the shape of seventeen year old Franco Ferreiro. Currently ranked No.22 he reached the semi-finals last year but was beaten by the eventual champion, Gilles Muller.
In stark contrast to the South American dominance in the boy’s draw, the girls’ singles draw has a heavy European influence. Barbora Strycova from the Czech Republic, the reigning Australian Junior Open champion, heads the field. Currently No.2 in the rankings, the ever-smiling Czech girl will be hot favourite having reached the semi-finals last year.
Joining Strycova will be compatriot Petra Cetkovska the current World Junior Doubles Champion. Cetkovska elected to head for South America instead of Australia at the beginning of the year and benefited by winning two Grade 1 singles titles. The experience may be just what she needs to help her win her first Grade A singles title.
Other strong Europeans in the top ten acceptances include Hungarian Virag Nemeth, Myriam Casanova from Switzerland, fourteen year old Tatiana Golovin from France and Croatian Nika Ozegovic who recently put together a fourteen match winning streak on the South American clay.
Maria Jose Argeri from Argentina will lead the South American challenge and fortunately she seems to have come into form at exactly the right time. The seventeen year old from Tandil in Argentina recently won the title at the Grade 1 Asuncion Bowl and was runner up at the Grade 2 Uruguay Bowl.
All eyes will be on Brazil next week to see who joins the illustrious list of Banana Bowl champions. For daily news check out the news section.
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