Everything was prepared for great tennis and exciting matches, and then it started… the rain! Instead of beginning at 12 o’clock as planned, the final matches only started at four. Annoyed from waiting for such a long time, many visitors had already left the facilities at that point. Sadly, both finals would have deserved to take place in front of a large audience.

On side of the girls, Selma Stefania Cadar from Rumania, a complete outside, prevailed. Her final opponent, Russian Oksana Selekhmeteva, had little to offer against her tactical and clever game and was also slightly impaired by a small injury. The result was a clear 6-3 and 6-0, which doesn’t really reflect the top-class abilities of both players. By the way, Cadar was one of the few of nearly 180 participants who came to Berlin alone, without a coach or supervisor.

The result of the male juniors, 6-4 and 6-2, also didn’t represent the overall balance of the final match. The Italian Lorenzo Musetti finally won the title against the Argentinian Facundo Diaz Acosta, who had actually been the favourite of the match. Nevertheless, Klaus Eberhard, experienced sports director of the German Tennis Federation praised both, saying they had a high potential and that he is sure we will soon see their names in the upper places of the men’s world rankings.

Despite the unforeseen circumstances during the finals, the 42nd International German Junior Championships were a great success. And we can say with certainty that the audience has seen participants, who will soon be decorating the top places on the world rankings. After all, the motto of the tournament has always been right:

In the Steffi Graf Stadium: The world stars start here!

 German language, but also nice pics

Especially concerning the girls, today´s matchday at the International German Youth Tournament was full of surprises. Only top-seeded Margaryta Bilokin from Ukraine made short work of the Italian Bartone. In speech of Tennis, 6-0 6-0 is called “pair of glasses”. Other favourites did have difficulties during the other matches. Prisacariu (Rumania) lost against Oksana Selekhmeteva (Russia) in three sets and Selma Cadar (Rumania) defeated the higher ranked Tikhonova (Russia) and reached the semifinals as the only unseeded player. Still on triumphal procession is the American Elizabeth Mandlik, being coached by her mother, fivefold Grand Slam winner Hana Mandlikova.

In the round of sixteen of the International German Junior Championships at the LTTC “Rot-Weiss” we watched some great tennis and dramatic scenes, the German female juniors, however, did not find their “happy end”. Alexandra Vecic from Tuebingen was defeated by Anastasia Tikhonova from Russia, Eva Lys from Hamburg was actually leading against Selma Cadar before the rain-disruption, but completely lost her head after the break, and Julia Middendorf from Visbek was clearly defeated by the number two seeded favourite Prisacariu from Rumania. The number one seeded Ukrainian Bilokin had to fight hard against the Bulgarian Dimitrova and had to parry two match balls. With a lot of luck, she reached the quarter final. Elizabeth Mandlik, daughter of multiple Grand Slam winner Hana Mandlikova, is also still part of the tournament. Her mother is supervising her in Berlin.