During this week many Juniors continued playing in the Pro-Tour: this article summarises how they performed in the various 15ks and 25ks held around (and outside) Europe.
I would like to start with Antalya’s 15k, in which Olga Danilovic and Marta Kostyuk played. The tournament was won by the former, but I will write a dedicated article to this, since Danilovic’s win is a good occasion to focus a bit more on her. As per Kostyuk’s tournament, this in Antalya was the first pro event Marta has played in 2017 and the third in her career: in the previous ones (both played last year) she lost in the first round.
Marta easily won the qualifications by dismissing 3 players not holding any noticeable ranking. Though, the first round was the worst possible for Marta, having been drawn to play against the first seed of the tournament, Georgian Sofia Shapatava, currently ranked 224 WTA and whose best ranking is 186. Marta managed to win this difficult match by 7-6(6) 6-2: first set’s stats between the 2 players are basically identical, with the exception of the number of break points: whilst Shapatova had only 3 of them, being able to convert 2 of them, Kostyuk had 9 (of course, also Kostyuk converted two of them). In the second set, Marta managed to win nearly the double of points than her opponent and the differences in serve stats between the two became huge (e.g.: in the second set, Shapatava won 31% of points with her first serve, whilst Kostyuk’s won 71%). The second round was much easier: Marta quickly dismissed the Turkish wild card Zeynep Sarioglan by 6-2 6-1. Then again a tough match: against Bosnian Jelena Simic (520 WTA, best ranking 433 reached last year) Marta dropped a set (the second one), managing anyway to win the match by 6-3 4-6 6-3. Stats of this match are interesting, since they show that Kostyuk was a bit more effective than her opponent with her first serve and a bit less with her second: what emerges in particular is that Marta, as it happened also in the matches she played in the last Australian Open, made quite a few double faults (8, 4 of which in the second set); nevertheless she managed to win 54.5% of points with her second serve – which for girls’ tennis is already a very good stat – meaning that when she hit a valid second serve she obtained 63% of the points: a brilliant figure. It seems that the young Ukrainian was able to be very aggressive also on her second serve, limiting anyway the number of double faults (an average lower than 3 per set). Kostyuk tournament ended in the semis, which she lost by 4-6 6-1 4-6 against third seed Julia Grabher: a fair result, since Grabher has gained a lot of experience in 15ks and is indeed a tough opponent to play against, especially for a 14 year old girl. It is interesting to notice that maybe Marta was a little less effective with her serve than the day before, having won 56% of points with her first and 41% with her second. Marta’s overall stats were anyway again fine: in particular, she managed to score the same amount of points (89) as her opponent and to gain more break points than Grabher: it was, thus, a very close match between the two, and this first semi-final must be considered a very good result achieved by young Marta.
Let’s now move to the first seasonal 25k held in S.M. Pula, in which many of the strongest junior competed: Olesya Pervushina lost again in the first round, beaten 3-6 6-7 by Daniela Hantuchova, 8th seed and former top 5 WTA: this defeat can be acceptable to Olesya, differently from others she suffered from in this first part of the season. Also last year’s Wimbledon finalist Dayana Yastremska lost in the first round, being dismissed by Elena Gabriela Ruse (296 WTA) in three tight sets: 6-7 6-3 7-5 was the score in favour of the Rumanian. Pervushina and Yastremska paired together in the doubles, which they managed to win; Pervushina is enrolled for playing next week’s tournament.
Further, beside the usual army of Italian players, among whom only Martina Trevisan reached the quarters, also Bianca Andreescu and Katarina Zavatska have competed in S.M. Pula, performing both of them very well. Andreescu in first round easily defeated by 6-3 6-3 the third seed Viktoria Kamenskaya (197 WTA); then struggled a bit to get rid, in three sets, of that lovely player who is Martina di Giuseppe – Martina must be proud of her tournament, being able to win the qualifications, to reach the second round and to battle evenly against this strong Canadian. In the quarters Andreescu easily got rid of another Italian, Martina Trevisan before losing in the semis against Zavatska.
Focusing on the latter, Zavatska started her tournament from the qualifications; to reach the main draw she has beaten Stefania Rubini and the German Katharina Hobgarski: overall, not a very tough draw for the Ukrainian. Zavatska’s main draw, though, was not easy at all: in the first round she beat the 2nd seed, the Macedonian Lina Gjorcheska (192 WTA), winning the match at the tie break of the third set; the second round was again difficult, and again three sets (3-6 6-3 6-0) were necessary for Katarina to beat former top 70 WTA, the Roumenian Mitu who, on her turn, in the first round, had defeated in two tight sets Italian Tatiana Pieri. After easily winning the quarter finals 6-2 6-4 against the Turkish qualifier Beraydin, in the semifinal Zavatska was paired against Andreescu, whom she beat 6-4 7-6(7). As the score states the match between the two was very close, and also the stats of the two players are. Possibly Zavatska won thanks to a higher percentage of first serves in (nearly 75%), being able to win 62% of the relevant points. Her opponent’s was not so consistent, hitting only 57% of valid first serves, obtaining over 71% of the points. Notwithstanding the above, Andreescu was able to gain many more break points than her opponent (18, while Zavatska 11), though the Canadian converted only 5 of them. 15 of the break opportunities in favour of Andreescu were in the second set, in which she was leading by 6-5: only in this game, which never ended, Zavatska had to face four break points, before reaching the tiebreak, which the Ukrainian managed to win by 9-7. In the finals, Zavatska easily dismissed by 6-1 6-3 the French Chloe Paquet (278 WTA) and gained her first 25k title, and second pro title, in her career (in 2015 she won a 10k in Sharm El Sheikh). Through this win Katarina will climb something like 180 positions in the ranking, reaching a spot close to 360th.
One of my favourite players, Iga Swiatek, joined a 15k in Le Havre, being this her first tournament after the one she won in Bergamo. Swiatek unfortunately lost in the first round by 7-6 2-6 1-6 against Marine Partaud who, in her turn, reached the finals which she will play today. In the match against Partaud, Iga’s serve stats were unusually bad, so bad that in the second set I thought that she was injured: Iga conceded 14 break points overall, an unusually high figure for her. Maybe it was a bad day for the young Polish, maybe she was not well or maybe she was a bit under pressure, since, as mentioned in her fan-club Facebook page, she will quit tournaments for a while to take some exams in school. If I am not wrong, the next tournament she will compete in will be the Italian Open, to be held during the third week of May.
Emily Appleton also competed in Le Havre, but she was harshly defeated 6-0 6-1 in the first round. Lastly, following advice by an old friend, I also highlight that a player born in 2002, the French Giulia Morlet, has played in 15k and reached the second round: she was defeated in three sets by the 8th seed Ilona Kremen. For her young age, Morlet has a noticeable junior ranking of 146 and she deserves to be monitored carefully; I will write a dedicated piece on her in the near future.
