Città di Santa Croce ITF Under 18 (level G1) is one of the most important junior tennis tournaments in Europe and a lot of young players use this claycourt tournament as warm-up for the Roland Garros.
I went there during the last four years and managed to watch and understand potential of juniors that later had a nice impact at pro level as Belinda Bencic, Ana Konjuh, Ashleigh Barty, and Karen Khachanov.
The tournment is very well organized and it’s in the heart of Tuscany so why not to spend a week here before playing a Grand Slam?
This article is not supposed to be a recap of what happened; I will offer you my very personal opinion about the players I watched and I will rate them using a sort of The Tennis Recruiting ranking (From Blue Chip down to 3 Stars). This was not an easy task, as I could have put someone one step lower or upper but…you have to decide.
Blue Chips
Vera Lapko (Belarus, Class 1998, currently Junior #47)
I am giving the best rating to a player that lost in her first match, yes. This tall girl from Belarus really impressed me when I watched her. She can hit very hard with both forehand and double handed backhand and she has a good serve as well. Of course footwork is not that good at the moment and she is still a bit of “hit and miss” but if she will manage to control her power and to move better imho her potential is huge.
Katarina Zavatksa (Ukraine, Class 2000, currently Junior #126)
As soon as I watched her I fell in love. Katarina reminded me a bit of Camila Giorgi for her slim body and her hard hitting. She is very young and her weakest area is emotions control. She gets angry very quickly even when she is leading easily and she really has to improve this side. During the 3rd round vs local Tatiana Pieri she got robbed twice (umpire called 30-40 after she won a point…on 30-40 and then he refused to go down from the chair to check a mark she asked for) and she literally played while crying a couple of games. It has to be noted that despite being so upset and angry she managed to win the match from 1-4 down 3rd set. I had the feeling that because of her behaviour she is not so loved by other players, but just a feeling.
Here is a quick video of her not shaking hands with chair umpire after the match against Pieri
Andrea Pellegrino (Italy, class 1997, currently Junior #56)
This boy impressed me from the very first time I watched him. His movements are so fluid and the speed of the ball going out from his racquet is very high. He moves well on court and I think Italy has a decent chance to have found at least a pro top 100 with him. He won the tournament without losing a set and he was always in control of matches and consider he had to face juniors Top 20 as Capalbo and Tsitsipas.
Five Star
Priscilla Hon (Australia, Class 1998, currently Junior #145)
I really loved watching Priscilla because he looked very ready for pro tournaments as she knows what to do on court and here, where I could watch some players that need to lose some weight or to put up some muscles, she showed a perfect body for playing tennis. She is a balanced player with very good forehand, backhand and serve and she can hit sick dropshots (she killed Lapko with this shot).
Olesya Pervushina (Russia, Class 2000, currently Junior #32)
Her flat backhand is one of the best shots I could admire this week. I was doubtful about awarding her a blue chip rank but I think her forehand is still too much unstable. She is quite tall and she can serve very hard and is surely a girl with great potential.
Anna Blinkova (Russia, Class 1998, Currently Junior #23)
I watched her 3 times and I have to say she didn’t impress me that much; she can hit hard from the baseline and she is very solid but I didn’t expect her to win the tournament and despite the win I don’t consider her the best prospect I’ve seen.
Naiktha Bains (Australia, Class 1998, Currently Junior #21)
Naiktha is so thin that you could not imagine her ball speed (especially with the forehand) being is so high. It was pretty obvious to me that she will perform much better on hardcourts but she really tried her best here, recovering from a set and two breaks down in the second round.
Lucie Wargnier (France, Class 1999, Currently Junior #65)
I watched her playing a very close match against the eventual champion Blinkova and in that match she served for the first set. She does not have Blinkova’s power but she is an all-court player very nice to watch.
Sam Riffice (USA, Class 1999, Currently Junior #88)
Sam reminded me a bit of Andy Roddick; he plays aggressive tennis and he can surely improve his body as he is quite slim with “no” muscles. He has a very fighting attitude and I think that if he will work in gym USA has another good prospect.
Ulises Blanch (USA, Class 1998, Currently Junior #36)
Ulises has the most powerful flat 1st serve I’ve seen in this tournament. He moves very well on court, with an excellent footwork. He is currently training in Argentina, you can easily understand this from his “Vamos” & “Daleeee”.
Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece, Class 1998, Currently Junior #18)
I was looking forward to watch him and he didn’t disappoint me. The Greek plays an aggressive tennis, he goes often to the net and has also a good serve. I love his one handed backhand even if this shot is less stable then expected.
4 Stars
Pieri sisters (Italy, Tatiana Class 1999, Jessica Class 1997)
They play very similar tennis (coached by their father Ivano, one of the best italian coaches) but I think they are too short to have a great future in pro tennis. They can do pretty much everything on court but their serves are pretty weak and they do not have much power. It has to be said that Tatiana was very close to beating Zavatska and Jessica lost a close final but I think the gap between them and the other girls I watched here will increase in the future.
Katherine Sebov (Canada, Class 1999, Currently Junior #35)
She lost to eventual champion Blinkova and she is also a very thin girl that surely need to put up some muscles; I could watch her only for a few minutes and she was outpowered by the Russian.
Ines Ibbou (Algeria, Class 1999, Currently Junior #62)
Ines is an extremely solid claycourter that plays with a lot of topspin; it is really not easy to play against her because she doesn’t miss anything and her shots are quite powerful. She will surely have a good pro career on clay and I am curious to see how she will perform on faster courts.
Yunseong Chung (Korea, Rep., Class 1998, Currently Junior #9)
I watched him in his first match against Riffice and he showed a very good serve (despite being quite short) and he was very solid and aggressive from baseline. I love his attitude, always smiling even after an unforced error. Surely clay is not his best surface.
Nicola Kuhn (Germany, Class 2000, Currently Junior #168)
Kuhn is a classic claycourter (he trains in Spain) and plays an aggressive tennis from baseline. He is quite tall, you would not say he is class 2000. He is one of the three class 2000 that have an ATP point.
3 Stars
Deria Nur Aliza (Indonesia, Class 1997, Currently Junior # 66)
I watched her in the quarterfinal against Jessica Pieri and I absolutely loved her classy tennis. She is quite short and does not have much power but her flat hitting is very nice to watch. It is pretty evident that she an hardcourter.
Karola Patricia Bejenaru (Romania, Class 1997, Currently Junior #104)
I have to mention her because she played a great match against Bains; she was two points away from the win and she didn’t show any particular weakness.
Alexandra Sanford (USA, Class 1999, Currently Junior #78)
Alexandra lost to Jessica Pieri in her second round and she showed a good power but a pretty bad footwork, she surely need to improve this aspect to be competitive at pro level .
Pranjala Yadlapalli (India, Class 199, Currently Junior #21)
She was one of the top seeds and she lost early against Zavatska; of course the Ukrainain was a severe test but I have to say the Indian didn’t impress me that much.
Andres Gabriel Ciurletti (Italy, Class 1998, Currently Junior #252)
This argentinian that recently started playing for Italy is a very solid claycourter. It’s really not easy to win points against him because he is a sort of wall, and he moves very well on court.
2 Stars or lower
Other players that I watched but that didn’t impress me were: Roveri Sidney (Boys, Brazil), Tessa (Boys, France), Fonio (Boys, Italy), Blancaneaux (Boys, France), Lumsden (Girls, GB)
Honorable mentions
I give this award to italian boys Summaria and Bonacia because their behaviour on court was really bad and quite funny at the same time.
Bonacia was leadin 5-3 over French Humbert and he informed the opponent he was going to have a toilet break. The French said “Now on 5-3?” and the Italian replied “It is 6-4, isn’t it? I am not good in Maths”. During the first round matches are played without umpire. After a while they agreed it was 5-3 and the Italian shouted “****! I was convinced I would have won the set”. I came back later and I found him shouting to the opponent “After a netcord you should say Sorry, not Allez” and then “[French expletive]” to the French box that said something about him being the new Fognini (not for tennis quality…). He lost 5-7 2-6.
Summaria was leading 5-0 in the third set and wasted 8 match points during that game with his Brazilian opponent hitting all-in shots.The Italian started to go crazy, swearing all the Saints. On 5-2 he shouted to his coach “I don’t know wht to do anymore” and on 5-3 after another match point wasted he said “I am going to lose this match”. He managed to convert a match point later but in my opinion he should have been defaulted for verbal abuse.
Main Photo
