TENNIS EUROPE JUNIOR TOUR 25 HISTORY
promising start to her pro career, reaching the 2001 Roland Garros quarter-finals at just 17 years of age. Sadly, the promise never came to full fruition, as Krasnoroutskaya’s career was prematurely halted by a surfeit of multiple injuries and illnesses. Her opponent in the Junior Championships final, Germany’s Scarlett Kotschwara, would claim titles in Genova, Ulm and Kufstein to finish in second place. Croat Mario Ancic had finished tenth the previous year, and in 1998 he stamped his mark on the 14 & Unders even more firmly, appearing in both Junior Championships and Petits As finals, winning the former and losing to Great Britain’s Matthew Smith in the latter. Ancic would also storm to victory in Genova and finish third at year-end; it was his beaten opponent in the Junior Championships final, Austria’s Stefan Wiespeiner, who would be the No 1 player of the year, thanks to titles in Ste-Genevieve-des-Bois and Leeuwarden. The boys’ 16 & Under division was dominated by Argentina’s Antonio Pastorino, who won three trophies - Avvenire, Bologna and Le Pontet - with Russia’s Dmitri Vlassov (champion in Reggio Emilia) and Georgia’s Irakli Ushangishvili (a four-time finalist, including losing to Pastorino in Bologna) making up the top three. But in the 1998 Top 10, it is the name Tommy Robredo which stands out today. Robredo competed in just three individual events, but won the Junior Championships to finish fifth. Meanwhile, no one player seized control in the girls’ 16 & Unders. Australia’s Melissa Dowse put together an impressive three-tournament winning streak in Bari, Reggio Emilia and Bologna, but her participation on the circuit was limited to just five Italian tournaments in May and June and she could only finish in second place. Marta Marrero, of Spain, was the year-end No 1 thanks to victories in the ETA Junior Masters and La Baule; in the former final, she beat third-placed Italian Maria Elena Camerin, a serial runner-up throughout the year. The biggest prizes went to Maria Emilia Salerni, of Argentina, whose title run in the Avvenire was her sole appearance on the Junior Tour this year, and the Czech Republic’s Daja Bedanova, whose schedule was almost as bare despite her Junior Championships victory.
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1 . Tommy Robredo with the Junior Masters trophy. 2 . Robredo and David Ferrer at the European 16 & Under Championships. 3 . Lina Krasnoroutskaya remains one of the Tour’s most successful players.
1999 The Tennis Europe Junior Tour is usually the first time that promising young talents appear on most observers’ radars. But during the ‘90s, the quest for the next big thing grew increasingly frenzied. 13-year-old Richard Gasquet of France, dominated the 14 & Under circuit in 1999, collecting the three most prestigious trophies of the year at Tim Essonne, Les Petits As and the European Junior Championships in San Remo. Just three years later, Gasquet would become the
In 1998, Lina Krasnoroutskaya of Russia became the first player ever to end the year as Tennis Europe Junior Tour #1 in two successive seasons. 48
youngest player ever to qualify for a Masters Series event at Monte Carlo, and the youngest player in 14 years to win an ATP-level match. Unsurprisingly, he credits his time on the Junior Tour as being crucial in his development: “To be prepared for the future, you have to play these tournaments to improve your level and to play and enjoy and learn to compete.” In the Tarbes final, Gasquet beat young American hope and future Tour player Brian Baker 75 63, and in the San Remo final he routed his closest rival of the year, compatriot Jerome Becker, 61 61 - but perhaps his most significant match of the year was a quarter-final against a 12-year-old Rafael Nadal in Tarbes, which Gasquet won 67 63 64. As pros, of course, Nadal’s revenge for that loss was definitive and prolonged: 13 consecutive wins over a decade and counting. Indeed, 1999 was a bumper year for future ATP top tenners in the boys’ 14 & Under division. Tomas Berdych finished fifth, with his strongest performances coming at home in the Czcech Republic (winning Nymburk in May and making the Prague final in June) as well as strong showings in team competition - which were instrumental in stoking his love for the game, as he now says. “Since I started to play my first team competition in 14 & Unders I really enjoyed playing as part of a team,” explains Berdych. “It was really nice and I have some great memories from it. It’s the only chance to get those results and I can tell you that the feeling you get - you cannot buy it.” Bolstered by two Portuguese titles in April, France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ended the year at 13. Most heartening, though, was the success of Marcos Baghdatis - the first player of note to have been aided by the ITF/Tennis Europe Development Programme, which assists the smaller and less prosperous nations under its umbrella. In 1999, Baghdatis won one of the two Development Championships reserved for these countries; seven years later, he would be a Slam finalist at the Australian Open. Baghdatis too has fond memories of his time on the Tour, especially Les Petits As: “I remember Tarbes being a very special tournament,” he says. “It was like playing a Grand Slam for us. Coming from a small country like Cyprus, it was fun getting to know the world a little bit and just enjoying my time. It was just a great experience.” The top girls’ 14 & Under performer was also a Development Championships winner, Kaia Kanepi of Estonia. The future five-time Slam quarterfinalist and World No 15 also beat Elke Clijsters - Kim’s little sister - in the Windmill Cup final, but had to content herself with runner-up places in the European Junior Championships (won by the Czech, Petra Cetkovska)
and Livorno. The latter was won by Russia’s Dinara Safina - the tenth-ranked Junior Tour player in 1999, but the World No 1 a decade later. It was quite the year for the younger siblings of tennis stars: besides Safina and Clijsters, the 16 & Under girls’ tour was dominated by Jaslyn Hewitt, Lleyton’s sister. The Australian’s summer in Europe was a productive one: her spoils from the French and Italian swings were three trophies, two runner-up plates and enough points to bolster her year-end No 1
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1 . Tomas Berdych began to make his mark in 1999. 2 . Janko Tipsarevic qualified for the 14 & Under Junior Masters. 3 . Richard Gasquet was phenomenally successful at 12 and 14 & Under events.
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