 Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 03 Jul 2006 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 07 Jul 2006 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 07 Jul 2006 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 07 Jul 2006 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 07 Jul 2006 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 07 Jul 2006 |
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| 07 Jul 2006 - Wimbledon - Eleanor Preston | |
| Giant killing Gawron sets sights on DeBakker |
Polish qualifier Marcin Gawron has been the revelation of junior Wimbledon 2006. When he arrived in London a few days before the qualifying competition for the boys’ tournament, he had never set foot on a grass court before. Seven victories later and Gawron is through to the Wimbledon final and looking forward to a joust for the title against top seed Thiemo De Bakker of the Netherlands.
“I didn’t expect this at all. I remember before we started in qualifying we were joking that I was going to be like Roger Federer at Wimbledon, and now I am in the final. It’s just like a dream,” said Gawron, through a translator, after beating Pavel Chekhov of Russia 7-6, 7-6. “We went to practice at the Bank of England Sports Ground at Roehampton three days before my first match and that was the first time I had ever hit a ball on grass.”
Gawron’s game fits well with grass, despite his relative inexperience on the surface. He trains on clay and hard-courts near his base in Nowy Sacz in Southern Poland but seems to be very much at home on the courts of SW19, despite the fact that he has made very few adjustments to his game. “I didn’t change anything,” he explained. “My movement is good and I run very fast so that helps, plus the grass plays more like a hard-court in the second week of Wimbledon so it’s not so fast. I played normal tennis, just like I would on a clay court. The biggest problem was receiving serve, so we worked on that a lot in practice, but I am getting better at that all the time.”
Gawron’s returning will need to be on form against DeBakker, who earned his place in what will be his first junior grand slam final with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Michal Konecny of the Czech Republic.
The impact of what he has achieved this week seemed to affect Gawron in the second set against Chekhov when he twice went a break up only to suffer an attack of nerves, first at 4-1 up and then again at 5-3. He survived the moments of tightness to wrap up a memorable victory.
Saturday’s girls’ final will see gutsy Dane Caroline Wozniacki take on Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova. Wozniacki, who also reached the junior Australian Open final in January, had to save three match-points in her thrilling 3-6, 6-3, 8-6 semi-final win over Poland’s Urszula Radwanska and afterwards admitted it had been a tough afternoon.
“I’m very tired but it was worth it,” said Wozniacki. “I think experience was the key today because I had been in a junior grand slam semi-final before and she hadn’t. When she served for it at 5-4 in the second set she had three different chances and on two of them I was certain she was going to make them but she missed easy volleys. I don’t think she will do that the next time she is in that situation.”
Rybarikova had to work hard to beat Tamira Paszek of Austria 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 to earn place in Saturday’s final. The 17-year-old Slovakian had never previously made it past the first round of a junior grand slam in singles, so win or lose against Wozniacki she has already made a significant breakthrough at this year’s Wimbledon.
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