November is not exactly the most exciting month for junior tennis, but Christmas is coming by…; so, I guess it is quite appropriate to focus a bit on Alexa Noel, even if she is not French, but American, and she has no diaeresis in the spelling of her name. Until one week ago I had no idea of who this young girl, born in September 2002, was. Well, since she just won her first Grade A, the Abierto Juvenil Mexicano, I got to know her.
Let’s be clear: this edition of the Abjerto Juvenil was not incredibly strong: the cut for the main draw was about 200 (104 ranked player played the qualification rounds, but I suppose that was due to the fact that she didn’t enrol in time); no. 1 in the world, Whitney Osuigwe, attended and also no. 10, the Argentinian Carle, did. Though, beside them, there were no other top 20 and only a 2 or 3 other top 50 played.
Alexa was admitted into the main draw, as she ranked at the time 158th, a spot which for a girl of her age is good, but not outstanding; her best result, before starting the Mexican grade A, was a quarter final reached in the Grade 1 Asuncion Bowl held last January: in light of the above, for sure Alexa was not the favourite to gain the trophy. Nevertheless, during the event, the young American not only lost no sets; in the process of winning, Alexa beat 52nd ranked in ITF Junior Ellie Douglas by 6-2 6-0 and, in the finals, guess who she dismissed? World number 1, Whitney Osuigwe, by 6-2 6-4. And that’s not it: Alexa is currently playing another grade 1 in Mexico and she reached another final: she has lost 1 set up to now, against 83 ranked Junior ITF Diane Perry from France and in the quarters she beat another top 10: Maria Lourdes Carle, by 6-4 6-3.
On the website of the Abierto Juvenil many matches can be seen; up to now, I have watched this girl playing by no more than five minutes, but what I saw was very, very interesting: I can already say she may enter in the “Beloved” category. I hope that soon enough I will be able to watch one of her matches and write a dedicated piece: maybe girls’ tennis is not over, after all. Anyway, following her unexpected win in the Mexican Grade A Alexa already ranks 43 in the ITF Junior rankings; thanks to today’s final, even if she loses it, she may climb around 30th spot. I guess we have found a player to follow closely during next season.
After the usual complete resume of the boys’ event, which indeed I followed closely, let’s now switch topic and focus on the pro tour.
Maja “DioTiSalvi” Chwalinska, after having tasted some Porceddu, went back home. Full of energy given to her by the lovely-tender-baby-pig, she performed pretty well in a 25k in Zawada and reached the semifinals: in the process, Maja beat by 6-2 6-2 Justina Jegolka, a top 300. She was dismissed by her compatriot, Katarzyna Piter, by 6-7 1-6: I have been told she had not eaten enough in Sardinia and felt low of energy; but, hopefully, next year she will be back in Milan and I will introduce the girl to cassoela, ossobuco and rustin negaa: she will then win both in Italy and in France, as Panatta did almost 40 years ago, for sure by following the same diet (and possibly by doing something else).
I want to end this short piece by mortifying myself and by asking for mercy: I even switched the order I followed in the headline and I write about Olga Danilovic after Maja. Usually, I refrain from delivering bad opinions about junior players: they are children, everything is tremendously difficult, they are subject to huge pressure; I try to be positive towards them and always give them a second chance. One exception is Olga Danilovic (a.k.a. the Ottoman). I saw a match of hers in the last U.S. Open and she completely pissed me off, so much so that also in the piece following the one focused on her match, I had bad words on her: so much talent wasted, I thought. Well, she slapped my face quite hard: well done, Olga.
During the last month Olga won everything: she won a 25k in Sant Cugat, having beaten the strong Russian Paigina in the finals; shortly after she reached the finals in a 25k in Valencia, never losing more than 7 games in a match; she is scheduled to play the final today against strong Rumanian Irina Maria Bara: even if she ends up losing the match, it will anyway be a victory for her, since the young Serbian girl will enter the top 350 of the WTA ranking. By the way, in Valencia Danilovic beat for the first time the Beloved One, Kaja Juvan, by 6-3 6-0 (ouch…). And that’s not all: within the two above-mentioned events Olga gave a try with the 125k in Limoges. Guess what: she was dismissed in the second round with the score of 5-7 6-7 by Sabine Lisicki (!!!), after having beaten in the first round Daniela Seguel with the score of 6-2 6-3. Indeed, that against Lisicki can be anyway be filed as a moral win for her.
One last line on the pic I used as a reference image of this article: that image has nothing to do with the Abierto Juvenil Mexicano or with Olga Danilovic: it is a pic of a girl I care of, i.e. Iga Swiatek (with her dad helping her). Come back soon, BerghemIga. We need you on court, stronger than ever.
