Bartram and De Greef clinch Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters titles
Ben Bartram won his first Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters boys’ singles title as Lizzy de Greef made it back-to-back girls’ singles titles in Tarbes, France, over the weekend.
The Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters, the premier annual international junior wheelchair tennis tournament for players aged 18 and under, takes place alongside the final four days of the prestigious Les Petits As Tennis Europe tournament for able-bodied juniors aged 14 and under.
Former Les Petits As players who have graduated to the top of the sport at senior level include Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Garbine Muguruza and Simona Halep. Meanwhile, Diede de Groot, Yui Kamiji, Gustavo Fernandez and Alfie Hewett are among current top 10 ranked senior players on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour who are former Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters champions.
Bartram and De Greef are the latest players from Great Britain and Netherlands, respectively, to add their names to the Junior Masters rolls of honour, with Bartram winning the event’s first ever all-British boys’ singles final after outlasting Dahnon Ward 4-6 6-1 6-4.
Both 16-year-old Brits progressed through their respective four-player round-robin pools with straight sets wins before Bartram defeated Austria’s Maximilian Taucher 6-3 6-1 and Ward beat fellow Brit Andrew Penney 6-0 6-2.
However, the final proved a tougher assignment for both players as a break of serve in the ninth game was enough to give Ward the upper hand.
Currently No.2 on the Cruyff Foundation Junior Wheelchair Tennis Ranking, Bartram took a commanding 5-0 lead on his way to claiming the second set, while world No. 3 Ward battled back from 3-1 down to level the final set.
However, with both players hitting an array of impressive winners and testing each other in all areas of the court, Bartram re-established a two-game cushion and wrapped up the title on the first of three successive match points as Ward put a backhand into the net.
After joining fellow Brits Hewett and Gordon Reid on the Junior Masters singles roll of honour Bartram said:
“It feels great. I played very good today in the second and third sets and I’m happy with my overall performance. In the first set I wasn’t really thinking about how I was playing and for the next two sets I used my brain a bit more, was a bit more tactical and had more of a structured game plan on every point.”
With the Junior Masters cancelled in 2021 due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, De Greef made a fine start to her bid to win the girls’ title for a second time and she won all three of her round-robin matches in straight sets.
Brazil’s Jade Lanai, currently No.2 in the Cruyff Foundation Junior Ranking behind De Greef, booked her place in the final with two wins from her three round-robin matches. Lanai’s only loss in her pool contests was to De Greef, while she finished strongly against Britain’s Ruby Bishop to win 6-7(1) 6-2.
As the two 17-year-olds went head-to-head for the second time in the girls’ singles title decider, De Greef was the first to strike, breaking Lanai for a 2-1 lead and continuing to carry the momentum to take the opening set comfortably.
However, she faced a much tougher task in the second set after Lanai gained the early break, only for De Greef to level proceedings at 3-3. At 5-4 up Lanai had set point on two occasions, De Greef saving the first with a backhand winner, while Lanai failed to find her target with a forehand on her second set point.
With the set coming down to a tie-break, De Greef took advantage of some untimely errors from her opponent, opening up a 5-1 lead before a final backhand from Lanai missed its mark to give De Greed a 6-1 7-6(3) victory.
“At the start of the week i didn't play well but got I more confidence during the tournament. Even the beginning of the final I was confident but Jade Lanai played good and I made more and more mistakes, but I’m happy to win after an exciting match.”
The boys’ doubles final provided another entertaining contest as Bartram and Ward secured another all-British success, making amends for errors in the second set to beat fellow Brit Andrew Penney and Austria’s Maximilian Taucher 6-1 5-7 (10-7) after a deciding match tie-break.
Wheelchair tennis made its debut at Les Petits As back in 1983, when an exhibition match took place in Tarbes and the sport continued to be a regular fixture through to the mid-1990s, contested firstly by senior players and then by a mixture of senior and junior players.
Since 1998 the wheelchair tennis event in Tarbes has been reserved exclusively for juniors selected by the ITF. The ITF’s Junior Wheelchair Tennis Programme Partner the Johan Cruyff Foundation became the title sponsor of the event in 2004, since when it has been known as the Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters.
The 2022 edition of the Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters once again demonstrated that there is an extremely bright future for the sport’s younger players as they continue on a proven development and performance pathway through to senior level competition, which includes annual regional Cruyff Foundation Junior Wheelchair Tennis Camps.