 Photographer: Francesco Panunzio
Date: 23 May 2004 |  Photographer: Francesco Panunzio
Date: 23 May 2004 |  Photographer: Francesco Panunzio
Date: 24 May 2004 |  Photographer: Francesco Panunzio
Date: 24 May 2004 |  Photographer: Francesco Panunzio
Date: 24 May 2004 |  Photographer: Francesco Panunzio
Date: 24 May 2004 |
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| 23 May 2004 - ITF - Neil Robinson | |
| Karatancheva and Rieschick Victorious in Milan |
Bulgaria's Sesil Karatancheva recovered from the loss of the first set to defeat Belarusian, Viktoria Azarenka 57 62 61 and record her first Grade A success. Azarenka, who eliminated defending champion, Michaella Krajicek yesterday, began where she left off and matched the Bulgarian before edging the first set. Karatancheva then upped her game and ran out a comfortable winner. The Bulgarian, who already has a top 200 WTA ranking, will now head to the French Open Juniors at Roland Garros, which begins on 30th May, as one of the favourites after collecting her sixth ITF Junior Circuit title, and second in two weeks.
The two finalists, both aged 14, and born just a week apart, will both enjoy big rises in the new ITF rankings : Karatancheva will is now just outside the top ten and Azarenka inside the top twenty.
There was a measure of revenge for Karatancheva, as she had lost the doubles' final yesterday to Azarenka and fellow-Belarusian, Volha Havartsova. They defeated Karatancheva and New Zealand's Marina Erakovic 26 62 63 for their second consecutive doubles' title and third this year.
Germany's Sebastian Rieschick, seeded two, took the boys' honours with a 62 75 victory over Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro. Rieschick took full advantage of the age difference - he is two and a half years older - to seal his first Grade A title and will receive a welcome confidence boost before the French Open Juniors. The German has closed the gap on the two boys ahead of him on the ITF Junior Rankings with his fourth title of his career.
In the boys' doubles, Brendan Evans gained some consolation for his defeat in the singles' semifinals, as he combined with 2003 Junior Doubles World Champion and fellow-American, Scott Oudsema, to beat India’s Karan Rastogi and Chu-Huan Yi, of Chinese Taipei, 62 64, to add to the Australian junior title that they won in January.
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