 Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 09 Jun 2006 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 25 Jan 2006 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 06 Sep 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 08 Jun 2006 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 01 Jul 2005 |  Photographer: Daniel Maurer
Date: 07 Aug 2004 |
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| 30 Jun 2006 - Helen McFetridge | |
| Wimbledon Preview |
Junior Wimbledon gets underway tomorrow, with top seeds Thiemo De Bakker and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova aiming to put their Roland Garros disappointment behind them and triumph on the grass.
De Bakker has dominated the junior circuit this year, putting together a 36-3 record and claiming five titles, but two of his three defeats have come in Grand Slams and he is still searching for that elusive first major. The Dutchman’s three-set loss to Philip Bester in the Roland Garros semi finals will have hurt, but although clay is his favourite surface he is more than capable of going all the way on grass. He reached the third round at Wimbledon last year and this week won the LTA International Junior Championships at Roehampton.
De Bakker’s main rivals should include Donald Young, last year’s Junior World Champion and a threat at any junior tournament he plays. Young was a semi finalist at last year’s Wimbledon and will be hoping to claim his second Grand Slam title next week. Alexandre Sidorenko (FRA), the Australian Open champion, will also be one to watch, as will surprise Roland Garros winner Martin Klizan (SVK).
Philip Bester’s run to the Roland Garros final, along with his admitted preference for grass, suggested that he would be one of the Wimbledon favourites. However, the Canadian crashed out in the first round at Roehampton to Australia’s Stephen Donald, and it will be interesting to see how he plays at what should in theory be the Grand Slam which suits him best. Roland Garros was Bester’s first tournament on the ITF Junior Circuit since October, and his ranking of 28 means he will not be seeded. Despite his early loss in Roehampton, none of the seeds will want him in their section of the draw.
The same could be said of Donald, who followed up his win over Bester at Roehampton with a victory over second seed and world number six Nicolas Santos (BRA), and of Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut, who pushed De Bakker to a 75 final set in the Roehampton final. With the last five boys’ Grand Slam winners having been unseeded it is highly possible that one of these, or indeed someone else entirely, could come through to win.
On the girls’ side, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will be hoping to rediscover her form of early 2006, when she won her first three tournaments, including the Australian Open, for the loss of just two sets. At the time it seemed as though she could dominate the ITF Junior Circuit for the rest of the year, but she has failed to win her last three tournaments and will be eager to get back to winning ways at Wimbledon. The Russian, who celebrates her 15th birthday on Tuesday, lost the world number one slot when she was defeated by Agnieszka Radwanska in the Roland Garros final, and she will want to get it back with a win next week.
With Radwanska not playing Junior Wimbledon, Pavlyuchenkova will be the clear favourite but there are certainly several players in the draw capable of beating her. She let slip a 51 third-set lead to Belarussian Ksenia Milevskaya in the Roehampton semis, going on to lose 86. She has also lost to Romania’s Sorana-Mihaela Cirstea this year. Neither Milevskaya nor Cirstea have ever played at Wimbledon before, however, and a stronger challenge may come from those with more experience on the surface. They include last year’s runner-up Tamira Paszek (AUT), Japan’s Ayumi Morita, who recently reached the third round of the WTA grass court event at Birmingham, and Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who won the Roehampton tournament in 2005 but did not play this year. Yung-Jan Chan (TPE) and Alisa Kleybanova (RUS) are both ranked inside the WTA’s top 200, meaning they should also be tough to beat.
Although unseeded Grand Slam winners are rarer among the girls than among the boys, when Radwanska won Wimbledon last year she was unseeded. This time around no unseeded players stand out as being particularly dangerous, but British wild card Naomi Cavaday may be one to watch. She gave eighteenth seed Ai Sugiyama a tough time in the first round of Wimbledon last week and could cause a few upsets if that form continues.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Stephen Donald will be blogging from Wimbledon all this week.
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