Japanese Juniors Eye Osaka Mayor’s Cup: ITF Tennis - Juniors

ITF Tennis - Juniors - News Article~~~

Tulsa is an important ITF tournament for North American players, but the Osaka Mayor's Cup, the Grade A in Japan that is being played now, will have an even bigger impact on the race for the coveted top spot in the ITF's year end rankings.

Last year, Gael Monfils, who is now Top 50 in the ATP rankings, took all the suspense out of December's Grade A Orange Bowl by winning three of the four junior Slams and putting the ITF World Champion title out of reach. But in 2005, all four Slams were won by different players, and all are still playing this week--current 1 & 2 Donald Young (Australia) and Ryan Sweeting (U.S.) in Tulsa, and 3 & 5 Jeremy Chardy (Wimbledon) and Marin Cilic (France) in Osaka.

Chardy and Cilic's remarks at the Open hinted strongly that they were conceding the title to Young, but they've apparently had second thoughts, even though Young has a healthy lead of about 400 points.

Chardy was a wild card into Osaka, meaning he didn't decide to play until the last minute and both he and Cilic are already entered in next month's Eddie Herr, the Grade 1 in Bradenton. There is a bonus of 250 points for winning three or more Grade A's and if either Cilic or Chardy win Osaka, he'll tie Young with two. The Orange Bowl is the last Grade A of the year, so those bonus points could make the difference.

On the girls side, Viktoria Azarenka is slumming in Osaka, having lost eight games in four matches. She's been in Asia since September, and made the semifinals of the WTA China event, demonstrating that perhaps she's outgrown the juniors. She certainly has the ITF world championship title locked up, so I'm baffled as to why she's playing there.

Not too many Americans make the trip to Japan, especially with a B1 going on at the same time, but Jason Jung did, and his quarterfinal showing will probably earn him enough points to break into the ITF top 100. The sixteen-year-old from Southern California made a splash at Kalamazoo this year, playing in the 18s division and upsetting seventh seed Mykyta Kryvonos in the third round. He won a Grade 2 in China last month and he's entered in the Eddie Herr too, so I look forward to seeing him there next month.