 Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 25 Jan 2006 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 12 Oct 2005 |  Photographer: None / Not Applicable
Date: 14 Mar 2006 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 24 Jan 2006 |  Photographer: None / Not Applicable
Date: 20 Mar 2006 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 25 Jun 2005 |
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| 19 May 2006 - Helen McFetridge | |
| World's Top Juniors Set for Milan |
Most of the world’s top juniors will be in action in Milan next week as the Italian Open, Europe’s first Grade A event of the year and the main tune-up for Roland Garros, gets underway on Monday. Both the boys’ and girls’ lineups are strong this year, with the boys’ field featuring seven of the top ten players in the world and the girls’ four.
On the boys’ side, top seed and world number two Thiemo de Bakker will be hoping to regain the form which saw him win his first twenty matches of the year. The Dutchman took a break from the circuit after his Australian Open quarter final loss, returning to action this week in Santa Croce. At the time of writing De Bakker had reached the semi finals, suggesting that he has been able to transfer his hard court form of early 2006 onto the clay.
With the world’s third and fourth ranked players, Donald Young and Alexandre Sidorenko, choosing to sit out the Italian Open, De Bakker’s main rival may turn out to be world number five Nicolas Santos of Brazil. Santos is playing the European clay court circuit for the first time this year, having had a lot of success on clay back in South America. He has won three clay court titles already this year, including the Grade 1 Asuncion Bowl, although he lost early in his last two events in Brazil and was beaten in the last 16 in Santa Croce by Italian Daniel Lopez so he may not be in top form at the moment.
Another to have won clay court titles this year is Croatian world number seven Luka Belic, who carries his country’s hopes in the absence of Marin Cilic. Belic won the Grade 1 International Junior Championships of Croatia earlier in the year, and will be hoping to repeat his countryman Petar Jelenic’s victory of last year in Milan.
Three Asians, Sanam Singh (IND), Hsin-Han Lee (TPE) and Sho Aida (JPN) are ranked in the top ten, but all have had the majority of their success in Asia on faster courts and it remains to be seen whether they can translate this onto the clay.
One of the top clay-courters on the ITF junior circuit may be Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas, who has a 13-1 record on the surface this year. Ramos-Vinolas won the Grade A Banana Bowl and Grade 1 Gerdau Cup on clay in March, and has been playing Futures events since then. His ITF ranking of 15 means he will be among the lower seeds in Milan, but he certainly has the ability to cause the top seeds problems.
Italy’s hopes rest with former Paraguayan Daniel Lopez, who has had some good results on clay but who was forced to withdraw from the quarter finals of Santa Croce with a throat infection. The Italians will be hoping he manages to recover from that in time to make a run in Milan.
Last year Petar Jelenic was a surprise winner, ranked 53 going into the competition. Non-seeds to watch out for this year may be Jaak Poldma (EST) and Paris Gemouchidis (GRE), who have both made a run to the semis in Santa Croce. Gemouchidis was runner-up in the Orange Bowl last year, so he certainly knows how to beat the top players.
In the girls’ event, Russia’s newest star Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova seems to be the hot favourite, having compiled a 23-1 record on the ITF junior circuit this year. Pavlyuchenkova has already won a $10,000 women’s event in Italy this month so she is obviously in good form.
Two others to have won $10,000 events in May are Raluca Olaru and Sorana Cirstea, both of Romania. Olaru in particular has had excellent results recently, winning two $10,000 tournaments and qualifying for a WTA event in Morocco in the last month. Olaru has a strong clay-court record, having won one tournament and finished runner-up in four others, including the Italian Open and Roland Garros, last year.
World number six Ayumi Morita (JPN) will also be among the favourites in Milan, having won one Grade 1 tournament and been a finalist in another this year. Morita reached the semi finals at Roland Garros last year and has a lot of experience on the ITF junior circuit, so she will be expecting to do well at the Italian Open.
Austria’s Tamira Paszek plays very little on the ITF junior circuit, but when she does play she tends to do well. Paszek won two tournaments and was runner-up at Wimbledon last year, while this year she has reached the semis of the Grade 1 Opus Nottinghill International, the quarters of the Australian Open and won the Grade 2 French Riviera International Junior Open in April. She will definitely be one to watch in Milan.
The top Italian player in Milan will be Corinna Dentoni, ranked 15 in the world. Dentoni won the Grade 1 Bealieu sur Mer tournament last month, and has won several $10,000 events on clay. She reached the semi finals of last year’s Italian Open and will be hoping to do even better this time around.
Daily reports from the Italian Open will be available at www.itftennis.com/juniors.
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