Early shocks at Junior Wimbledon
Top seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) suffered a shock
61 76(10) first round defeat to Kristina Kucova (SVK) as Junior
Wimbledon got underway on Saturday. The Russian was the overwhelming
favourite to add the Wimbledon title to her Australian Open
crown, and her defeat leaves the draw wide open.
In Pavlyuchenkova’s absence, the leading girls’
contenders include last year’s runner-up Tamira Paszek
(AUT); Ayumi Morita (JPN), who reached the third round at
this year’s WTA grass court event at Birmingham; and
Australian Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki (DEN). Yung-Jan
Chan (TPE) and Alisa Kleybanova (RUS), both currently ranked
in the top 200 on the WTA rankings, will also be tough to
beat.
The top seed in the boys’ event, Thiemo De Bakker (NED),
opened his campaign today. De Bakker has dominated the Junior
Circuit this year, compiling a 36-3 win-loss record and claiming
five titles. However two of his three defeats have come at
Grand Slam events and he is still searching for that elusive
first major. The Dutch player has a good record on grass,
having reached the third round at Wimbledon last year, and
winning last week’s International Junior Championships
at Roehampton.
De Bakker’s main rivals include Donald Young, last
year’s ITF Junior World Champion and a threat at any
junior tournament he plays. Young was a semifinalist at last
year’s Wimbledon and is looking to claim his second
Grand Slam title. Alexandre Sidorenko (FRA), the current Australian
Open champion, suffered a first round defeat on Saturday,
but No. 2 seed and Roland Garros champion Martin Klizan (SVK)
will look to continue his recent run of form.
The last five Grand Slam boys’ champions have been
unseeded, and it is possible that Wimbledon will also have
a surprise winner this week. Dangerous floaters in the draw
include Philip Bester (CAN), the Roland Garros finalist; and
Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP), who pushed De Bakker to three
sets in the final at Roehampton last week.
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