Junior Davis Cup Qualifying in Israel: Live Report
David Marcus, one of the proprietors of sponsor OTZ Sporting Goods, is in Israel this week, and is attending the European Qualifying for the ITF's Junior Davis Cup. He filed this report on the action, and it sounds as if Serbia will continue to be part of the tennis conversation for many years to come.
I will post briefly later tonight on the results of the first round of the Women's US Open National Playoffs and notable Pro Circuit results today.
Junior Davis Cup/European Qualifying
report by David Marcus
Wednesday marked the start of the qualifying tournament for the European Junior Davis Cup on the clay courts in Herzliya, Israel. Teams from Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Israel, Poland, Serbia and Ukraine are competing for the top two spots. The top two teams will advance to the European Junior Davis Cup championship next month in France. The winning teams of the tournament in France will play in the World Junior Davis Cup Championship in Mexico in September. This is the first time Israel has hosted this event and more than 500 tennis fans and the mayor of Herzliya came out to cheer the teams and watch some outstanding junior tennis players.
One of the most watched players in the tournament is Miki Jankovic, 16, from Serbia who is ranked No. 2 in Europe and already carries an impressive ITF ranking of 106 for the age 18 and under category. Sporting a powerful serve and great touch at the net, Jankovich played an impressive clay court match to easily defeat Dominic Weidinger of Austria 6-1, 6-1. Miki’s teammate Pedja Krstin, is ranked no. 3 in Europe and easily beat Austrian Johannes Schretter 6-2, 6-1. The Serbian team is seeded No. 1 in the competition.
Next up the No.2 seeded Israeli team defeated No. 3 seeded Belarus. In the first match Israel’s Igor Smilansky (ranked No. 17 in Europe) crushed first serves and powered inside out forehands to defeat a game Aliaksei Tarada 6-2, 6-4. Not to be outdone, Or Ram-Harel (ranked No. 11 in Europe) followed suit with a smooth all court, error free performance to defeat Yersh Maskim 6-0, 6-3. Tomorrow’s final will be the showdown between the two top teams Serbia and Israel.
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