 Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 06 Jul 2006 |  Photographer: Sergio Carmona
Date: 28 Sep 2006 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 08 Sep 2006 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 16 Oct 2006 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 06 Jun 2006 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 27 Jan 2006 |
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| 01 Dec 2006 - Helen McFetridge | |
| Orange Bowl Preview |
The last Grade A event of the year gets underway on Monday as the Tennis Center at Crandon Park hosts the 60th edition of the Orange Bowl. Many of the game’s current stars are past Orange Bowl champions, including Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and Elena Dementieva, and some of the best junior players in the world will be hoping to add their names to that illustrious winners’ list.
The girls’ event looks particularly strong this year, with world number three Ayumi Morita (JPN) and number four Ksenia Milevskaya (BLR) heading the seedings. Milevskaya has won five Grade 1 tournaments this year and led her country to the Junior Fed Cup title two months ago, while Morita has won eleven of her last twelve matches on the ITF junior circuit.
Leading the American challenge will be Julia Cohen, ranked ninth in the world and winner of the Grade A Casablanca Cup at the beginning of the year. Cohen will be playing the Orange Bowl for the fifth time and will be hopeful of improving on her best showing, a third-round finish last year. Others in contention for the title include Canadian Sharon Fichman, the world number eight, and Katerina Vankova (CZE), who won the Grade 1 Gerdau Cup earlier in the year and defeated both Milevskaya and Fichman on her way to the US Open semis.
On the boys’ side, Brazil’s Nicolas Santos, ranked five in the world, heads the field. Santos has already won four tournaments in 2006 and is equally at home on hard courts and clay. He will be aiming to end his junior career with a first Grade A title, after finishing runner-up at the Casablanca Cup at the start of the year.
The main challenger to Santos could be Donald Young, who has had a disappointing year by his standards with his lone title of 2006 coming at the Easter Bowl US Closed Championships. The reigning ITF Junior World Champion will be hoping to end his season on a high note at the tournament where he reached his first major final in 2004.
Another American in contention for the title is Kellen Damico, at number eight the highest ranked American in the world. Damico’s best results have come in doubles, where he won Wimbledon and made the Australian Open final this year, but he has been a singles finalist in two Grade 1 tournaments in 2006 and should be tough to beat.
Petru-Alexandru Luncanu, the world number nine, has not won an ITF junior circuit tournament since last December’s Yucatan Cup, where he decided the race for the year-end number one spot by defeating Marin Cilic and Donald Young back-to-back. However, the Romanian has been a semi-finalist at two Grade A events in 2006 and is definitely capable of a strong showing here. Another potential winner could be Russia’s Pavel Chekhov, who reached the quarter finals or better at three of the four Grand Slams in 2006.
Daily reports will be available on www.itftennis.com/juniors.
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