ERSA Pro Stringer Issue 9 2017 ProStringer_0917_5 web | Page 18

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INDUSTRY NEWS
Tennis Europe News
Top seed Luca Nardi gave the home fans plenty to cheer
about, becoming just the second ever Italian to claim the
boys’ 14 & Under title. He grew in confidence throughout
the weekend, eventually scoring his easiest win of the
tournament in his final match, hitting peak form in a
6-2 6-1 win over Briton Jack Pinnington Jones. Victory
bookended an incredible season for the European #1,
who began the year by winning the coveted Les Petits As
title, and ended with the Junior Masters, racking up two
other singles and doubles titles, and establishing a 45-4
win/loss record along the way. Speaking after the match,
Nardi said, “I’m very happy for this win. I played a very good
match today. The crowd helped me a lot, every time I won
a point they were cheering me and calling ‘Forza Luca’. It’s
a perfect way to end the year, and now I will go away and
train for two months in the winter and come back strong.”
Silver medallist Pinnington Jones also has reason to be
happy following a season in which he won three singles
and four doubles titles, including the European Junior
Luca Nardi
Championships.
The 14 & Under girls’ final was an all-Russian battle between Diana Shnaider and Maria Bondarenko. In a match
characterised by punishingly long rallies, fourth seed Shnaider edged a tight first set before accelerating away
in the second, eventually claiming a 6-4 6-1 victory. It was the first win for Shnaider over her compatriot in four
matches, and she was pleased with her performance, saying “I am very happy because I felt a lot of pressure
during the match. I wanted to win because this is the best tournament with the best players.” The victory was
her third singles title of the season, following on from wins in Riga and Trnava, and enables Shnaider to end the
season ranked in the Top 5.
The 16 & Under boys’ title went to Nini Dica of Romania
after a hard-hitting battle with third seed Anthony Genov
of Bulgaria. Genov took an early lead and served for the
first set before being broken twice as the top seed got into
the zone, winning nine of the final ten games to emerge
with a 7-5 6-1 victory. The win adds a Junior Masters title
to Dica’s European Junior Championships silver medal,
and the Romanian said he is now looking forward to new
challenges, explaining “Tomorrow I fly to Argentina to play
some ITF events. I will also play in Uruguay and Peru and
end up at the Orange Bowl, so this is a great start.”
Top seed Carole Monnet overcame the challenge of
European Junior Championship silver medallist Caijsa
Hennemann of Sweden to claim the girls’ 16 & under
title, scoring a third consecutive straight sets win of the
Nini Dica
weekend before lifting the trophy. Hennemann had also not
lost a set on route to the final, but had no answer to Monnet’s consistency, losing 6-2 6-2. Monnet becomes
the first ever French girl to win a Junior Masters title, and the first French player since Julien Jeanpierre in 1996,
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ERSA PRO STRINGER // ISSUE 9-2017