The champions were crowned today at the Les Petits As, with Ekaterina Dotsenko of Russia and Mario Vukovic of France taking straight sets victories in the finals of the prestigious 14-and-under tournament in Tarbes France.
Dotsenko, the No. 12 seed, defeated No. 2 seed Darina Matvejeva of Latvia 6-3, 6-4, with her run through the draw an impressive one. She beat No. 6 seed Zeliha Cukurluoglu of Turkey in the third round, top seed Megan Knight of Great Britain in the quarterfinals and No. 9 seed and Junior Orange Bowl 14s champion Sakino Miyazawa of Japan in the semifinals. Despite her size and power, Dotsenko was also an excellent defender and the depth on her ground strokes gave Matvejeva little chance to close at the net.
Dotsenko is the third straight Russian girl to claim the title.
 |
Mario Vukovic, 2025 Les Petits As boys champion
photo credit: Richard van Loon, toptennis.photos |
Vukovic, the No. 5 seed, was coming off a title at the Tennis Europe Category 1 tournament the week before in Bolton England, and he didn't come close to losing a set in his march to the final, dropping just 19 games in his six victories. He lost only one in today's final against No. 8 seed Tristan Ascenzo of the United States, and it was the first game of the match, when he was broken with nervous unforced errors, then reeled off 12 straight games.
Ascenzo, the No. 8 seed, couldn't find a solution to Vukovic's excellent transition game; he immediately recognized when a shot had hurt Ascenzo and closed the net, displaying an impressive array of volleys. Down 3-0 in the second set, Ascenzo had three break chances, but he couldn't convert any in the four-deuce game, and with the packed house cheering him on, he closed out the 57-minute final with a dazzling 360 degree volley winner for the title.
Vukovic is the first French boy to win the title since Rayane Roumane in 2014.
See the
Tennis Europe tournament page for complete draws.
Jannik Sinner of Italy defended his Australian Open title, beating Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-3 in Sunday's men's final.
In the Australian Open women's doubles final Sunday, Taylor Townsend won her second major, both with Katerina Siniakova of Czech Republic. The top seeds, who won Wimbledon last year, defeated No. 3 seeds Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-3. For more on the match, see
this article from the Australian Open website.
The 14 teams who will join women's hosts
Northwestern and Illinois and men's hosts
SMU and Baylor at next month's Division I National Team Indoor Championships have been decided after the conclusion of the
ITA Kickoff Weekend tonight. There were a few ho-hum regionals and several barn-burners, with two teams advancing to the women's indoor --Tennessee and Texas--via a win in a third-set tiebreaker with the score tied at 3-all. Three of the women's hosts failed to advance, which is a typical number, with LSU, Auburn and Oklahoma getting road victories to earn their spots. Hosts are in bold, with links to all the recaps from the school's website.
WOMEN:
Texas A&M[2] d. TCU 4-0
https://12thman.com/news/2025/1/25/womens-tennis-no-2-aggies-sweep-tcu-to-win-ita-kickoff-weekend-championshipUCLA[6] d. Washington 4-0
https://uclabruins.com/news/2025/1/25/no-6-womens-tennis-blanks-huskies-to-earn-indoors-berthVirgina[5] d. Duke[7] 4-3
Tennessee[18] d. Ohio State[15] 4-3
Auburn[13] d. Southern California[11] 4-2
Stanford[3] d. Mississippi 4-2
Texas[12] d. Baylor 4-3
Pepperdine[16] d. Arizona 4-1
Oklahoma[17] d. Cal[14] 4-1
Michigan[8] d. UC-Santa Barbara 4-0
North Carolina[9] d. Wisconsin 4-0
Georgia[1] d. Princeton 5-0
Oklahoma State[4] d. Arkansas 4-1
LSU[22] d. Florida[19] 4-1
The number of women's hosts who lost were not out of the ordinary; that can't be said of the men's hosts, with six of the 14 dropping their matches. Unseeded Central Florida got the biggest upset of the day, defeating No. 6 Arizona 4-3 in Tucson, while No. 9 Mississippi State fell to No. 22 NC State 4-1 and No. 8 Oklahoma lost to Stanford 4-1. The best regional was in Cambridge, where Harvard hosted Texas A&M, UCLA and Georgia, and it was the Aggies who came away with chance to play in their home state next month, beating UCLA 4-3 in the first match and Harvard 4-3 in the second. Former ITF junior No. 11, Theo Papamalamis of France, who joined the Aggies this month, won both his matches at the No. 1 position, beating No. 13 Spencer Johnson of UCLA 6-3, 6-1 and Daniel Milavsky of Harvard, with the match tied at 3-all, 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-0.
San Diego and Michigan also picked up victories on the road over higher-ranked hosts.
MEN:
Kentucky[12] d. Arizona State[20] 4-0
Wake Forest[4] d. Memphis 4-0
San Diego[15] d. Florida State[10] 4-2
Texas[1] d. Georgia Tech 4-0
Ohio State[3] d. Princeton 4-0
Virginia[5] d. Alabama[19] 4-1
Michigan[25] d. Tennessee[14] 4-1
Duke[11] d. Vanderbilt 4-0
Columbia[7] d. Florida[24] 4-2
Stanford[18] d. Oklahoma[8] 4-1
NC State[22] d. Mississippi State[9] 4-1
Texas A&M [13] d. Harvard[23] 4-3
Central Florida d. Arizona[6] 4-3
TCU[2] d. Michigan State[17] 4-1
0 comments:
Post a Comment