Yuki Naito
I took a little holiday from the blog after the Bonfiglio busy period; it’s now time to write something, as Roland Garros is about to start (actually, the quali have already been played).
This week the Astrid Bowl took place, a strong Grade 1 held in Belgium, useful to prepare the forthcoming slam. The girls’ tournament was strong, as 21 top 100 were enrolled in the entry list and four of them were top 20. More, Alexa Noel, who was defeated in the first round in Milan, was granted a wild card and she was the first seed of the tournament. The boys’ event was even better, as 27 top 100 players enrolled, including the recent winner of the Italian Open, Adrian Andreev.
Starting from the boys’ event, the Italian Open champion benefitted from a bye in the first round but retired in the second when the score was 6-4 1-4. Last week’s semi-finalist, the Japanese Tajima, confirmed his good period of form as he managed to grab a further semi-final, being defeated by the Swiss Wenger by 1-6 7-6(5) 6-2. In the final Wenger played against British Matusevich, who was granted a wild card; the Swiss won by 6-2 6-4. The first seed Skatov experienced another disappointing week: after surprisingly losing in the first round of the Italian Open against Italian Cobolli, in Belgium he lost in the second round by 2-6 3-6 against Peruvian Rodriguez (having skipped the first round due to a bye).
Moving to the girls’ event, the first seed Noel profited well from the wild card granted to her, as she won the tournament dropping only one set in her way: that happened in the second round, against Russian Daria Frayman, on whom we have spoken a lot, lately: the score of this match was a bit weird, as the American won by 6-2 1-6 6-1. The other finalist of the Astrid Bowl was a girl who performed convincingly in Italy, i.e. the Ukrainian Dema: after having reached the quarterfinals in Bonfiglio, Dema enjoyed a further very solid week, as she dropped only one set up to today (against Russian Pachkaleva), having beaten in the quarters the second seed Naho Sato (the winner of the doubles event in Milan, paired with Juki Naito) with the convincing score of 6-1 6-3. Dema didn’t manage to oppose great resilience in the final against Noel, though, as the result of the match was 6-1 6-4 in favour of the American. Yuki Naito, the finalist of the Italian Open, didn’t perform greatly, as she lost in the quarters against American Navarro by 2-6 3-6; after so many matches in the last two weeks, the Japanese girl might have been a bit tired.
I would like to make one notation on the Japanese team: in Italy they have won the price for the federation which obtained more points during the tournament, having been able to place one boy (Tajima) in the singles’ semi-finals, one girl in the singles’ finals and to win the girls’ double event. It seems that Japan is becoming one of the strongest tennis countries, at least at the junior level. They currently have 2 boys and 5 girls within the top 100: two of the five girls are close to top 10. Plus, they have Moyuka Uchijima, a girl born in 2001 who had an anonymous junior career but who is performing well on the pro tour, as she currently ranks as a top 400. It seems it’s better we get used to finding many strong Japanese players around in the next future.
Let’s move to Paris now, where the two qualification rounds have been played. This time I’ll focus only on girls, as I completely ignore over-50 ranked boys’ world. The most interesting match was maybe the one placed in the first qualification round between Francesca Curmi and Leonie Kung: on Curmi we spoke a lot during the last weeks; she lost early in Milan, having been beaten by the first seed Wang; Curmi, though, gave the Chinese a hard time before surrendering. Kung played quite well in Milan, as she qualified to the main draw and lost in the second round against Rakhimova in three sets. Further, she reached the doubles’ event final paired with Kathy McNelly. Curmi won the match in three sets by 6-7 6-3 6-2, confirming to be a very solid and dangerous player; she then managed to qualify, having got easily rid of Turkish Ovunc. Varvara Gracheva also got through, even if she experienced some hard times in her first match against Columbian Rico Garcia, in which she dropped one set. French Alice Tubello beat the strong Spanish Custic (who caused the first big upset in Bonfiglio, by dismissing the first seed Noel) and then Daria Fryman. 15-year-old Avanesyan confirmed to be an interesting player, having dropped only 8 games in her two qualifying matches. Other girls who managed to qualify are the Russians Pachkaleva, Timofeeva and Selekhmeteva (watch out: the latter was born in 2003 – she may worth to be followed more closely in the next few months) and the American Stearns.
The main draw came out today and some interesting matches are scheduled: in particular, Vaja Gracheva was not lucky at all, as she immediately will be opposed to the second seed Wang. For sure, the latter will be the favourite in this match but if Vaja steps down the bed with the right foot, she can be a dangerous opponent for the Chinese. Other interesting matches will be the one between the Italian Open champion Elè Molinaro and the golden hand Manon Leonard. Curiously enough, this will be the rematch of the first round of the Italian Open: two weeks ago Molinaro was forced to the tie-break in the first set, in a match in which Leonard showed to be able to play pure serve and volley.
Other interesting matches will be Naito vs. Bilokin and Sato vs. Dema (the latter will be a rematch of the one just played in Belgium). But listen to this: Alexa Noel has not been very lucky in her draw, as she will find the worse-ranked player in the whole tournament: BERGHEMIGA SWIATEK!!! I mean, good luck.
One last notation: one week ago, contextually with the Italian Open, a Grade 2 was held in Hungary. A wild card was granted to Linda Fruhvirtova, from the Czech Republic. This girl was born in 2005 (!!) and she reached the quarterfinals, having beaten in the first round a top 100, aging 5 years older than her. Do we have a new Cori Gauff?
