|
|
| 06 Jul 2003 | |
| Mergea doubles up while Flipkens fights her way to glory |
Florin Mergea (ROM) and Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) are the new junior Wimbledon champions after two thrilling finals at SW19. Mergea, who beat Australia’s Chris Guccione 6-2 7-6, also celebrated a memorable double but taking the boys’ doubles’ title with fellow Romanian Horia Tecau. Guccione was once again on the receiving end of a defeat in doubles. He and his partner Adam Feeney, also from Australia lost 7-6 7-5 to the Romanians.
Mergea is in good company. The last person to win both titles was newly-crowned 2003 men’s champion Roger Federer, who took home both juniors titles in 1998.
“I heard about that,” smiled Mergea. “I’d like to copy him again and win the men’s title one day.”
Flipkens put in another gritty performance at the end of a week of battles to clinch her debut Grand Slam title with a 6-4 3-6 6-3 win over Anna Tchakvetadze.
“It’s such an honour to be called a Wimbledon champion,” said Flipkens, who threw herself on the ground and sobbed with sheer joy after Tchakvetadze double-faulted to give her the title. “I can’t believe I get to go to the Champions’ Ball tonight.”
Mergea and Tecau were also looking forward to celebrating in style. “We brought our suits just in case,” laughed Tecau.
The 17-year-old Flipkens arrived in Britain having never played a match on grass and even she was surprised to have ended her sojourn in South West London as a Wimbledon champion. “I guess I knew grass was my surface even before I hit a ball on it,” she said, “and I definitely like it now. I can’t believe I have won because I have had a lot of tough matches. There’s no way I thought that would happen.”
Flipkens’ win has certainly come against the odds. She played top seed Sunitha Rao (USA) in the quarter-finals and at that point thought her tournament was over. “I told myself before that match, ‘just get as many games as you can,’” she laughed. Having survived that Flipkens then needed all the determination she could muster to overcome Jarmila Gajdosova (SVK) in a semi-final which set No.1 Court alight on Saturday.
Having won the first set against Tchakvetadze, Flipkens might have been forgiven for thinking that she might be on for an easy day but the Russian dug in to force a decider, when Flipkens’ inner steel once more came into play.
“I have been through some really tough matches in the last two weeks and I haven’t lost a third set in any of them,” she said. “That gives you a special confidence because you know you can fight. On the tennis court I am a very determined person. Off the court it’s a different story but when I am playing I know how to fight and I did that today.”
Mergea, who says he has benefited from travelling with the ITF Development team in recent weeks, also needed plenty of mental strength to grab his chance at glory in the singles. “I was very nervous when match point came but I had nothing in my head except the thought that everything, all my matches this week, came down to me getting this point. I was very relieved when I won it.”
He and Tecau had been hoping for an all-Romanian singles final but when Tecau lost in the semi-finals they set their hearts on defending their 2002 doubles title instead. “We had a look at the board which has the winners’ names on and we didn’t see any other teams who had their names there twice,” said Tecau. “We promised each other we would be the ones to do it.”
Scratch pairing Alisa Kleybanova (RUS) and Sania Mirza (IND) won the girls’ doubles with a 2-6 6-3 6-2 win over Katerina Bohmova (CZE) and Michaela Krajicek (NED), despite barely knowing each other before teaming up at the start of the tournament. “It’s not a bad way to start is it?” said Mirza. “We worked so well as a team and we had an understanding right from the beginning.”
Kleybanova was equally delighted with her win. “I dreamed about things like this and I knew they were possible but at the start of the tournament neither of us was really thinking about winning it. Neither of us could find anyone to play with so with tried playing together and found we got on really well. It didn’t work out too badly did it?”
Photos by Susan Mullane
^ Back to Top
|
