Stefania Boian (ROU) and Luka Ceramilac (SRB) broke the ice and won their first Tennis Europe Category 1 tournaments in Bucharest last weekend.

The eleventh edition of the Dr. Oetker Junior Trophy ran smoothly, providing players with intense competition and some entertaining off-court activities. These included a Tennis Europe Junior School, a fun-filled ‘Kids Day’ with Romanian professional player Irina Fetecau and sweet refreshments at all times. | 📸 Photo Gallery

It seems like Boian enjoys playing on home soil. She teamed up with Antonia Stoyanov (NED) and won the doubles title against Sara Balan (ROU) & Andreya Glushkova (BUL) 6-1 6-3. In the singles draw, she dominated the week by winning in straight sets. In the final, she faced compatriot Andreea Olariu, against whom she had played multiple matches in the past few weeks. Being very familiar with her opponent’s game, Boian tried and succeeded to break Olariu’s rhythm and take her out of her comfort zone. Following a 6-3 6-2 victory, Boian happily hugged the trophy and shared with us her moment of joy.

“I’m really happy I finally won a Category 1 tournament. It’s always a challenge playing against Andreea, I lost count of the matches we’ve had together. My plan now is to keep competing at different tournaments and hopefully be among the 8 players at the Monte-Carlo Masters.”

Since the beginning of the year, Luka Ceramilac has been travelling around Europe competing in multiple Tennis Europe tournaments. In February, he finished as a runner-up in a Category 2 event in Bucharest, and this time he returned to claim the winner’s trophy. Ceramilac aced the semifinal against top seed Artem Semenov by winning 6-3 6-0. However, the final match against local favorite Matei Chelemen proved to be more challenging. While Ceramilac maintained control during the first set, the second had multiple turns of events. With the whole crowd rooting for him, the Romanian was close to taking the match to the third set, leading at 3-1 and 6-5. Nonetheless, Ceramilac kept his focus, restored the balance when needed and ultimately claimed victory with a score of 6-4 7-6 (4).

“My opponent was very good, it was a complicated battle. There were some moments when maybe I could have played smarter, but in the end of course I’m happy with the result. Winning a Category 1 title was one of my main goals for this year and I hope to win one at home too.”

Even though he wanted the bigger trophy, Chelemen had a big smile on his face at the end and shared with us some thoughts about his experience at the Dr. Oetker Junior Trophy: “It’s been an amazing week, but unfortunately earlier today I was still a bit tired after yesterday’s match. I played an intense three-set semifinal (6-7 6-4 7-6).. I felt that fatigue during the final, but I’m still happy that I had those moments when I was leading. I’ll continue training, I’m looking forward to the Super Category event in Germany and fingers crossed I can play at the Masters in Monte-Carlo as well. My favourite player is Alcaraz, I know he also played Tennis Europe events, so I’d love to follow in his footsteps.”

Boys’ Doubles Final:
Andreas Hansen (DEN) & Artem Semenov def. Ziya Aydin & Mehmet Ercin (TUR) 7-5 6-4

 

Elsewhere on the TEJT last week:

• Hollie Smart (GBR) won back-to-back singles titles in Maribor, Slovenia.  In doing so, she won an incredible 39 games in a row and claimed the singles title without losing a game. She also won the doubles title with compatriot Edie Griffiths, her opponent in the singles final.
• Top seed Gabriel Niedermayr (AUT) and Emma Sophie Glaser (GER) won the 14&U singles titles in Mödling, Austria. At the same venue, Austrian Thilo Behrmann secured both 16&U singles and doubles titles.
• Micol Salvadori (ITA) scored wins over four seeded players and won the tournament in Pavia, Italy, marking her first Tennis Europe trophy since 2021.
• Keisija Berzina (LAT), champion at the 12&U Festival in 2022, wins her third 14&U singles title at the Estonian Junior Open

 

For all the latest news, draws, scores and live streaming, download the new Junior Tour mobile app, available now free-of-charge for Apple and Android devices.

 

 

Jana Kovackova (CZE) and Jordan Lee (USA) won their first Category 1 titles last week in Slovakia. Click for a rull round-up of the latest Junior Tour action...

The in–form Jordan Lee (USA) and Czech Jana Kovackova won the 14&U Category 1 Ensana Piestany Cup this past week in Slovakia. It was a breakthrough win for the American player on Tennis Europe Junior Tour, while Kovackova won her first title in this age category, adding to her impressive haul of four 12 and Under wins.

In his previous event, Lee (pictured, below) took out top seed Jakub Kusy (CZE) as well as three other seeds en route to his runner-up finish in Most. He was able to take this form with him to Piestany, a tournament which lost its top seed Marcos Ontiveros-Castro, recent Maia Super Category champ, in Round 2 and second seed Kusy in the semis. Lee defeated four more seeded players in Piestany, including #3 Tomas Kreji (CZE), on his way to the final. A come-from-behind win over home favourite Leon Sloboda in a marathon decider earned the American a 4-6 7-6(7) 6-1 win.

Kovackova was the ninth seed coming into the tournament and was perhaps flying low on people’s radar. Top seed Veronika Sekerkova, currently ranked sixth in the 14&U Race to Monte-Carlo, was the clear favorite and stormed to the girls’ semifinals with four consecutive straight sets wins. That is where her story ended though, as she ran into an unstoppable Kovackova. The ninth seed was in imperious form, winning all of her matches in straight sets and sweeping to the title for the loss of just 20 games in 6 matches. One of those games went to Sekerkova, while in the final second seed Sara Oliveriusova (CZE) was able to garner just two.

Kovackova is following in the footsteps of her older sister Alena – last year’s 14 and 16 & Under Player of the Year. So far on the TEJT she has racked up eight titles in 12&U events - four in singles as mentioned, as well as four in doubles. She had appeared in three previous 14&U finals and also reached the final of the 16&U Brno Cup three weeks ago. Expect her name to appear in this column regularly in the next couple of years. | 📸 Photo Gallery.

Doubles Finals:

Boys: Tomas Kreji & Jakub Kusy (CZE) d. Rhys Lawlor & Leo Wright (GBR) 6-0 4-6 10-3

Girls: Sara Oliveriusova & Lucie Slamenikova (CZE) d. Barbara Kostecka & Oliwia Sybicka (POL) 6-7(5) 6-3 10-6

Elsewhere on the TEJT last week:

• Success for British players at the Cat.2 Grawe Open in Maribor (SLO). Hollie Smart beat Edie Griffiths in an all-British girls’ 16&U final, while Megan Knight took the girls 14&U win. Scott Watson was runner-up in the boys’ 14&U category, losing to Switzerland’s Brian Kriesi, while Paolo Angeli was a popular home winner of the boys’ 16&U event.
• Dmytro Vterkovskyi of Ukraine reached his fourth singles final of 2023 and picked up a third title at Cat.2 16&U Zabrze (POL). Home player Oliwia Drozdz won the girls’ event.
• A second singles title of the year (both on home soil in Serbia) for Relja Todorovic, who also teamed up with Samuel Sykora (SVK) for a doubles win at Cat.2 Subotica.
• Top seeds Pavel Dufek (CZE) and Keisija Berzina (LAT) claimed with Cat.2 14&U Wilson Cup titles in Rakovnik (CZE).
• Samim Filiz (TUR) scored a third singles title of the season - and first at 16&U level - at the Cat.3 event in Baku (AZE)

 

For all the latest news, draws, scores and live streaming, download the new Junior Tour mobile app, available now free-of-charge for Apple and Android devices.

Czech pair Veronika Sekerkova and Tomas Krejci happily claimed the Most Open titles on home soil. Read more to find out what else happened on the Junior Tour last week...

Czech pair Veronika Sekerkova and Tomas Krejci have won the 14 & Under Category 1 tournament in Most on home soil. This win marks their second title of the year and will strengthen their standings in the Race to Monte-Carlo, where Sekerkova ranked 2nd and Krejci 8th last week.

Top seed Sekerkova, faced Anna Pircher (AUT) in the final, who had wins over three seeded players on her way to the final. After playing two consecutive three-set matches, the Czech picked up the trophy after a quick 6-3 6-2 victory.  This victory is especially sweet for Sekerkova, who lost the Most Open final to Serbian Luna Vujovic in 2022.

R1: bye

R2: def Isabella Angelina Abendroth (GER) 6-1 6-3

R3: def Anna Mihalka (HUN) 6-1 6-1

QF: def Lujza Zimenova [9] (SVK) 3-6 7-5 6-0

SF: def Kristyna Dulikova [8] (CZE) 6-4 6-7(3) 6-1

F: def Anna Pircher [13] (AUT) 6-3 6-2

Girl’s Doubles

Greta Nemcsek (HUN) & Lucie Slamenikova (CZE) def Vera Khrushchyk & Mariia Makarova 6-2 2-6 10-5

In the boys’ event, Krejci had his most difficult battle of the week in the semifinal against Luka Ceramilac (SRB). He came back from one set down, played two tiebreaks and qualified for the final after a 6-7(8)7-6(4) 6-2 win. He happily returned to the same court right after the semifinal to secure the doubles title together with compatriot Jakub Kusy, defeating Rhys Lawlor & Leo Wright (GBR) 6-4 7-5.

In the singles final, Krejci faced American Jordan Lee, who upset top seed Kusy in the second round. Lee went on to upset three more seeded players during the event, until Krejci stopped his winning streak and claimed the Most Open title 6-1 6-3.

R1: bye

R2: def Jan Kreysa (CZE) 6-2 6-0

R3: def Marko Erceg [16] (CRO) 6-1 6-0

QF: def Michael Antonius (USA) 7-6(1) 6-0

SF: def Luka Ceramilac [11] (SRB) 6-7(8) 7-6(4) 6-2

F: def Jordan Lee (USA) 6-1 6-3

Elsewhere on the TEJT last week:

• The 20th edition of Trofeo Maglio in Maglie, Italy (12&U, Cat. 1) was won by Axel Cremonini (ITA) & Ekaterina Dotchenko
• Vuk Krstajic (MNE) and Xinran Sun (CHN) won their first 2023 titles at the Cungu Open in Ulcinj, Montenegro
• Kiira Pashkov (EST) won both singles and doubles titles at a 16&U event for the second time this year, on this occasion at home in Viljandi.
• The Baku Tennis Academy had both a 14&U and 16&U competition (Cat. 3) and welcomed players from all over the world. The 14&U titles were claimed by Vlada Razina & Kamal Fakhretdinov, while the 16&U titles by Doruk Calikogl (TUR) & Ulyana Hrabavets
• Pietro Verno (ITA) beat compatriot and doubles partner Giulio Casucci in the Tirana Open final, only to return to the court and win the doubles title together defeating another Italian pair, Matteo Brianza & Gianmarco Triggiano

 

For full results from last week, click here. This week, the Tour calls in on 12 cities across the continent, headlined by the Category 1 14 & Under event in Piestany. Download our app (search for ‘Tennis Europe’ on Google Play or the Apple Store) to follow all the latest scores.

Just 75 days to go until the top players battle for the Junior Tour's biggest prize: the European Junior Championships!

All eyes will be on the next generation of Europe’s top tennis players this summer at the 46th edition of the Junior Tour’s most prestigious tournament, the European Junior Championships.

The three events will be played in the same week (17th - 23rd July) in the following cities:

• 14 & Under in Most, Czech Republic 
• 16 & Under in Přerov, Czech Republic 
• 18 & Under in Klosters, Switzerland 

 

The winners of the 14 and 16 & Under singles titles automatically qualify to compete at the elite season-ending Junior Masters in Monte-Carlo in November, while the 18 & Under event offers valuable ITF World Tennis Tour Junior ranking points.

A magnet for keen tennis fans, agents and potential sponsors, the Championships attract a strong field each year. A European Junior Championship victory has historically been an pivotal moment in the young careers of future top professionals. 13 of the previous singles winners have gone on to become world #1s, including Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Martina Hingis and Iga Swiatek.

Just 75 days to go! Stay tuned for further news as the event approaches.

Last week was a busy and exciting one on the TEJT calendar. Read here to see what happened on different clay courts around Europe.. 

Ksenia Efremova and Marco Ontiveros Castro (GER) have each won their maiden Super Category tournaments, lifting the winner’s trophy in Portugal.  They defeated in-form players Hollie Smart (GBR) and Savva Rybkin in what was a story of contrasts. The win had been a long time coming for the Russian starlet, while the German has stunned many pundits by nabbing a major on the Tennis Europe Junior Tour.

In the final, Efremova bolted out of the gates to a 4-1 lead, which Smart whittled down to 5-5, by asserting herself more and successfully venturing to the net on occasion. Efremova, miserly with her unforced errors, broke back and took the first set, before breaking away in the second and taking the title 7-5 6-1.

An elated Efremova was all smiles after her big win, “I feel very, very happy because I was recently in two big finals, and this time I did it, so I’m very happy with that! At the beginning (after getting the break) I really slowed down a bit and she came back. At 5-5 I played more aggressively and I won.”

Efremova, the 2022 Junior Masters champ, has been putting in the hours at the Mouratoglou Academy since then and since racked up a slew of trophies: she won Tim Essonne, was Runner-up in Stockholm and was also pipped at the post in the final of the 16&U event in Torelló. Smart, too, has been on a fantastic run. This was her third consecutive TEJT final, having come into the championship decider on a 15-match winning streak on the tour, having taken the 14&U title in Wrexham as well as the 16&U event in Coimbra.

Ontiveros Castro also began the final full of adrenaline and leapt to a 4-0 lead in the first set, breaking Rybkin twice, and quickly forged ahead to take the opener 6-2. Rybkin rallied and secured a break in the second set but failed to close it out when serving at 5-3 up. The doubt and nerves that seeped in were all Ontiveros needed to pounce on Rybkin and bring the hard-hitting encounter to 5-5, only for the German to pull away and take the title 6-2 7-5.

We also spoke to Ontiveros after the final and he reflected back on his performance in Maia. “‘I’m feeling very happy because it was very tough, especially the semifinal. I’m just very happy to win this. Now I’m flying to Most for a Category 1 event, and I hope I win there too!”

Having previously won a 12&U event at home in Germany in 2021 and a 14&U tournament last year in Croatia, Ontiveros is now in the big leagues. Watch for a big jump in the #RaceToMonteCarlo from the German. Rybkin, regardless how disappointing a loss can be, can be heartened by the fact that he has now made five finals in a row after his shock R3 loss in Tarbes. He was a finalist in Tim Essonne, as well as two J30 events, and now here in Maia. One of those five finals included a dominant win at the Super Category event in Stockholm.

One standout amongst all the top-notch achievements in Maia was the amazing result of boys’ semifinalist, the unseeded Alexey Frolov. He fought his way through qualifying and took out no less than three seeded players, Mustafa Ege Sek (TUR, 4), Vincent Jakob Reisach (GER, 14) and Artem Semenov (10). Frolov came into the event with few points, despite having been the surprise champ at Tim Essonne, thus having to play qualies. In the match of the tournament, Frolov held a match point against Ontiveros in the second set tiebreak, but succumbed to the fifth seed, with the German winning their semifinal encounter 6-7(8) 7-6(7) 6-3 in 3 hours and 20 minutes.

With the ups come the downs and of course, as with any major tournament, there are bound to be some surprises along the way, the biggest of which this year might have been the dismissal of the top boys’ seed in the round of 16 by Spaniard Adolfo Abascal 6-1 6-3. Although he claimed that the surface was not the issue with his performance, current race leader Mark Ceban simply acknowledged that his opponent played better tennis on the day. Abascal would then fall to the eventual champion in the quarters.

The number two girls’ seed from the Czech Republic, Sofie Hettlerova also found herself out of the event at the same stage as Ceban, having fallen to Antonia Stoyanov (NED). The Dutch player in turn was stopped at the quarterfinal stage by Ioana-Stefania Boain (ROU) who was then halted by Smart in the semis. Efremova for her part had a three-set fight against Lucie Slamenikova (CZE) in the semis, having earlier outdone Oliwia Sybicka (POL) in the quarters.

No need to be in the doldrums for Sybicka however, as she teamed up with Smart in the girls’ doubles. In what would be a great performance in Maia by any standards having made the singles final, Smart also took home a winner’s trophy in the doubles. The British-Polish combination defeated Victoria Barros (BRA) & Carla Vazquez (ESP) 5-7 6-4 11-9 to take the title. The boys’ doubles champs were the popular combination of Mustafa Ege Sek & Samim Filiz. The Turks defeated the Slovene pairing of Richard Krizan & Leon Sloboda 6-2 7-6(3) in the final.

Fittingly, in the very same week that Carlos Alcaraz won this title six years ago, we are back in Maia on the heels of his win is Barcelona win in the very same week on the professional circuit. Perhaps it won’t be too long before we see this year’s champions holding aloft ATP and WTA trophies.

For the past 22 years, this town on the outskirts of Porto has hosted one of the biggest tournaments on the Tennis Europe Junior Tour. In fact, Maia is known in Portugal as the “city of sports”. We had a chance to talk to the Maia City Councillor in charge of sports Hernani Ribeiro (pictured with Alcaraz):  “Tennis is one of the most important sports we have here in Maia. Nuno Borges, world number 74, is from Maia and we are very proud of that. And with Tennis Europe, well, it’s a very good collaboration. We very much like hosting this tournament and we have held other events in the past, because it’s where we want to invest in and promote youth events. We also host ATP challengers in Maia, but our heart is with the youngsters and these kinds of tournaments.”

With a list of partners as long as your arm, an exemplary player transport and accommodation service, as well as an endless supply of food, beverages and player support at the tournament, the participants and their teams could want for nothing. As Councillor Ribeiro stated, “This tournament is improving year after year. Next year, the 30th year, will be even better!”

Meanwhile, in Vic, Spain, Kolos Kincses (HUN) and Sofia Kryvoruchko (UKR) won the 16 & Under Category 1 Memorial Nacho Juncosa. Kincses teamed up with Joao Morgado (POR) and secured the doubles title as well. Part of a swing of top-tier tournaments on the Iberian Peninsula during the clay-court season, this is a tournament offering players plenty of points in the #RaceToMonteCarlo. The players also had the opportunity to attend the Tennis Europe Junior School, where they got an insight into the importance of Nutrition & Hydration as well as handling Media & Social Media.

More highlights from last week:

• Tennis Europe was invited as an Education Partner to the IMG Future Stars 12 & Under Invitational event in Athens, where many of the world’s best 12 & Under players gathered for the special tournament. Following a week of matches, workshops, and the Junior School, Yeri Hong (KOR) and Evan Giurescu (FRA) claimed the coveted titles.
• Gabriel Niedermayr (AUT) & Serena Agostini (ITA) won their first Tennis Europe singles title at the 14 & Under Category 2 Mladost Grill Open in Zagreb, Croatia.
• Veronika Sekerkova (CZE) & Jan Sadzik (POL) won the 16 & Under Category 2 event in Brno, Czech Republic.
• The Avenue Cup in Burgas, Bulgaria saw Briyana Ivanova (BUL) & Ziya Ayberk Aydin (TUR) victorious.

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