Felix Auger Aliassime overcame the talented Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in a wonderful match 75 65. With former Australian Open champion Petr Korda watching from the side bleacher on the one baseline Felix battled with Tsitsipas on serve to 5-5. Felix seemed the slightly superior player from the baseline but struggled with the lanky Greek’s serve – missing many returns. A finalist in last year’s Orange Bowl (lost to Kozlov) Tsitsipas has a beautiful one hander and movement – but at crunch time late in the set it was Felix who seemed to huger the win more as evidenced by his controlled intensity and grunting – while the Greek was silent all set – it reminded of Fed’s silence vs Rafa’s brute grunting – Stefanos was the Fed grace while Felix was surely the Rafa Djokovic brute – and that intensity seemed to be the difference – Felix earned his first break point of the set (but missed another return) and on the next point he killed an inside out forehand and then finessed a drop that that Tsitsipas didn’t even step for – amazing feel by Felix who won the next point and then held serve to win the set 75. Korda left after that set to watch his son in the 16s doubles final but was reserved in his comments about Felix – saying that he is a very nice player with excellent movement but it’s still very early and he reminded that there are a lot of great junior players who don’t make it in the pros.
But Felix was really impressive today with not only his sublime talent but also his humble court conduct – he won the second set 64 – another observation about Felix is he never looked over to his coach or anyone from Team Canada – he was just totally focused and in his own world – though he did mildly protest that he felt Tsitsipas quick served him on one point in the middle of the first set. Tsitsipas was also very impressive as a competitor and sportsman – beautiful one hander – he also never looked to presumably his parents and never whined – you could easily see Tsitsipas playing in majors on TV someday. The best shots of the match were two backhand cross court angled passing shots by Felix on the full run – he is so accurate with his shots it looks like he practiced hitting dimes as targets – as Agassi used to do. Felix lost in the doubles semis (11-9 in super breaker) to De Minaur and Thompson who lost the final to Ruud and Kecmanovic 36 46 – De Minaur had the match point on Opelka at Wimbledon this year – Opelka went on to win the match and the title – De Minaur won the first 18s semi today defeating Canadian Benjamin Sigouin 61 63 – De Minaur is from Australia and another slight but very powerful and consistent hitter – he said he’s just moved to Spain to train.
Kyle McKenzie continued her dream week by beating the top seed and defending champ Dalma Galfi 64 63 – Kylie has been unstoppable since saving a match point down 5-1 in the third two rounds earlier to Hanna Chang – she might not have missed a shot since then – she will play the final tomorrow against Tamara Zidansek who managed to come back from 06 25 down to Amanda Anisimova to win 06 64 61 – but the future is still bright for American Amanda who is just fourteen and impressed all this week with her beautiful game.
Sebastien Korda lost his boys 16s doubles final 13-11 in the super tiebreaker. Local girl Gia Cohen (from Sarasota) lost today in the girls 14s semis 46 57 to Marta Kostyuk – I first read about Cohen in the local magazine here – she moved down here from up north and obviously has developed into a top talent – I liked her easy stroked and deep penetration on her shots – and a good fighting spirit which is intense but not offensive at all. Gabrielle Price is still in alive in the 14s girls doubles final tomorrow.
After the matches I was able to hit with the father of the Thai 12s quarterfinalist Punnin – her dad was a national 45s champ in Thailand five years ago – I won 60 64 – and then I hit with a Thai boy who lost in the 16s qualies – he beat me 11-7 in a baseline game – Punnin’s dad Sakchai Kovapitaktes is going to Miami tomorrow for the Orange Bowl – he has a hard court and red clay court and trains his daughter five days a week – he’s planning on taking her to Europe for a month of training next year – I may hit with her tomorrow morning and I have to admit she has every shot both offensive and defensive and can hit 50 balls rallies – I fear a beatdown loss to a twelve year old girl 🙂
No tags
Rob · December 5, 2015 at 8:47 pm
Of all the ‘up n comers’ Felix and T Fritz are the standouts with Paul not far behind. It is that composure on court and the ability to raise the game which they have. This marks them as the ones to watch. Tiafoe? – it is a lovely story but I watched that final where he lost his mind over a point. Anyways, Korda will know more than the bunch of us put together. They are young and plenty of incredible talents have never ‘made it’.
Scoop Malinowski · December 6, 2015 at 7:57 am
I talked with a junior tennis insider here at Herr about all the Americans and this person rates Fritz as the top prospect – his backhand was a major liability over a year ago but it’s much better now – Fritz used to be a mediocre player just a few years ago but he always had the power – Paul is also highly regarded but he needs an attitude adjustment – he’s a little too relaxed and carefree – evidenced by blowing the big lead on Rubin in the VA Challenger – he was up a set and about 5-2 and let it slip – Kozlov Opelka Tiafoe mmoh donaldson all there in the mix but not quite as highly regarded right now as Fritz and Paul – but of course things can change quickly –
Dan markowitz · December 6, 2015 at 12:27 pm
Interesting Rubin gets left out of picture when he’s really had as much success as anyone not named Paul and Fritz and maybe Donaldson.
Andrew Miller · December 6, 2015 at 1:31 pm
Andy Murray on UK’s junior program: “There’s no one. No one to practice with. I have to import practice partners”.
Bobby Hurley · December 6, 2015 at 3:15 pm
probably be a few years before these guys appear on the atp tour. And we will see if they can handle the tour’s physicality. But 2016 should feature a whole new crew of youngsters that will be interesting to watch. I kinda want to see someone new win a major.
Scoop Malinowski · December 6, 2015 at 4:22 pm
Rubin was out of the picture – until he came back vs Paul in the Charlottesville Challenger from a set and 5-2 down – that win vaulted him back into the discussion – one very good week can do that – that’s all it takes – Donaldson has a lot of points to defend in maui —
Scoop Malinowski · December 6, 2015 at 4:23 pm
Boy oh boy Andy sure did drop the nukes on the LTA didn’t he? he really unloaded on LTA big time this week – tell it like it is Andy
Scoop Malinowski · December 6, 2015 at 4:29 pm
I will say that De minaur – Tsitsipas – Kecmanovic – Ruud – Felix – Sigouin – molleker – Wu will all be top 100 Tour players within five years – I would be absolutely dumbfounded if any of these are not ATP Tour regulars —
Andrew Miller · December 6, 2015 at 7:18 pm
Murray lit into the LTA. Davis Cup coach Leon Smith did an extraordinary job in bringing the UK from oblivion to the Davis Cup title – probably the most notable Davis Cup victory in decades (even with the #2 player in the world on board). He did it by motivating players like Ward to play far beyond their pay grade.
Murray was angry with the LTA, basically said they haven’t done their job and they haven’t even taken advantage of Murray’s success OR the Davis Cup victories, which he believes should have been in motion nearly two years ago.
Oli Golding, 2011 US Open juniors champ, gave an interview a year ago and said some interesting things about British tennis. I thought probably the most interesting thing he said was that the courts most folks in the UK play on aren’t surfaces for the tour (different kinds of artificial turf, rubberized surfaces, etc) because the costs of installing them in the UK are so low. The other stuff – lack of funding, not many tennis players generally, lack of players, lack of practice partners, the pressure and expectations of the country – that sounds similar to a lot of players. The surface issue was an interesting one.
Andrew Miller · December 6, 2015 at 7:23 pm
Another thing that’s interesting about LTA tennis was the previous involvement of luminaries like Annacone and Gilbert. Essentially it boils down to this:
If you think the U.S.T.A. has trouble, and you want to feel a little better, just look at the LTA and their record with juniors.
” Britain won the Davis Cup with a detonation of brilliance from one man and immense solidarity from the rest — and they did so not because of the LTA but in spite of them. And what’s more, the players had the breathtaking audacity to say so in public. Why not? They could hardly make matters worse.” – ESPN
Andrew Miller · December 6, 2015 at 7:24 pm
Murray pointed to Kyrgios and Kokkinakis as “next up” to compete for slams when the big four stop winning them.
Moskova Moskova · December 8, 2015 at 10:43 am
@ Andrew – sorry to tell you mate but kokkinakis banged your GF LOL