The Official Teenage Tennis Talent Thread
- Thread starter stringertom
- Start date
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Some feisty moments in the Poljicak vs Rodenas SF as the second set unfolds. Mili Vanili took the first set 7-5, held the first game of the second set when the fireworks went off during Rodenas’ service game. Lots of jawing over an overrule that resulted in a point replay instead of a point won. Then a lot of mock, “Vamos!” catcalls from Fats Poljicak whenever Rodenas lost a point. Poljicak wound up with the break after a struggle and now has maintained the break lead, 3-1.
Joseph_K
Hall of Fame
In the semi-finals of the boys’ singles event at Wimbledon yesterday the American Michael Zheng defeated Martin Landaluce of Spain 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(7), while Mili Poljičak of Croatia beat another Spaniard, Pedro Ródenas, 7-5, 6-2. Tomorrow’s final between the 17-year-old Croat, who is seeded no. 3, and the unseeded 18-year-old American, will start at 1pm on Court No. 1.
Baseline_Bungle
Hall of Fame
"I was comfortable from the first point. I didn't feel any pressure. You know... I'm a chill guy."
- Mili "The Mouth" Poljicak
- Mili "The Mouth" Poljicak
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Perhaps @Nostradamus should watch to find out his call of Zheng winning the title was slightly premature and incorrect.
#Poljicakreshs FTW!
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Marko Topo is one match away from qualifying at Hamburg 500. He was born in Serbia, is 18 and plays for Germany. At NCH 594, he has received a WC into the qualies, an identical path he followed in Munich this spring. He leads fellow German Rudy Molleker by a set.
Baseline_Bungle
Hall of Fame
Start spreading the news…
An epic run in Verona started in the qualies and ended with the first Challenger trophy for Frankie The Maestro Maestrelli, otherwise known as The Tower of Pisa.
Th 19-year-old Tuscan had never beaten a player inside the top 200 until last week. Now he’s beaten 5 in a row, capping the run with his first top-100 scalp, namely Argentinian challenger king Pedro Cachin, whom he finished off with an emphatic bagel to clinch the title. Ranked around number 800 at the start of the year, "il Maestro" is now 237 and all but assured a spot in next month’s USO qualifying draw. And once he polishes a few aspects of his still very raw game, I'm pretty sure the hard courts will become his natural habitat…
PS you heard it here first
An epic run in Verona started in the qualies and ended with the first Challenger trophy for Frankie The Maestro Maestrelli, otherwise known as The Tower of Pisa.
Th 19-year-old Tuscan had never beaten a player inside the top 200 until last week. Now he’s beaten 5 in a row, capping the run with his first top-100 scalp, namely Argentinian challenger king Pedro Cachin, whom he finished off with an emphatic bagel to clinch the title. Ranked around number 800 at the start of the year, "il Maestro" is now 237 and all but assured a spot in next month’s USO qualifying draw. And once he polishes a few aspects of his still very raw game, I'm pretty sure the hard courts will become his natural habitat…
PS you heard it here first
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Hamburg: 5 of the 32 are teens after two qualifiers and a WC were added in. Four are in the top half.
Gstaad: zero teens in the mix, even with a round of qualifying to be completed.
Gstaad: zero teens in the mix, even with a round of qualifying to be completed.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Day 1 Hamburg casualties: Topo went out in straight sets while his German compadre Max Rehberg got within two games of a win before Kovalik rallied to win 11 of the last 13 games FTW, 3-6 7-5 6-1.
Still to play are Alcaraz, Rune and Nardi.
Still to play are Alcaraz, Rune and Nardi.
Baseline_Bungle
Hall of Fame
Big-boned Mili Poljicak has indeed been awarded a WC for the Croatia Open. In other news, the all-you-can-eat Umag Shrimp Shack has announced it will be closing for summer holidays.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
All but Carlos out at Hamburg and he was not far from joining the less than Fantastic Four.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
As expected, Wimby Boys champ Mili Vanilli Poljicak is in the Umag 250 main draw as a WC but he is not the only Croat teen WC. At 16, Dino Prizmic is also a beneficiary of the tournament committee. He is ranked at #810 and will face the grinding Challenger/ATP veteran Bernabe Zapata Miralles. Poljicak will play a qualifier TBD.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
No title defense in Umag for Alcaraz, backing up from 7-6(5) 1-0 0-40 on Sinner’s serve to eat twin breadsticks.
Baseline_Bungle
Hall of Fame
He's also apparently some kind of Red Cross superhero.
Chinese Tennis Star Shang Juncheng Rescues Heat Stricken Ballkid | ATP Tour | Tennis
Chinese teen Shang Juncheng carries an ailing ballkid to safety at the Lexington tennis Challenger in Kentucky.
www.atptour.com
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Nardi’s first ATP MD win deserves some love. That is if the Wiki page stats are correct. He beat fellow qualifier Shevchenko in 1R action at the new 500 in Astana. Tsitsipas is next up.
Baseline_Bungle
Hall of Fame
Also possibly the first human ever to make his pro debut in a challenger (l. 2&3 to Geerts this week in Alicante), followed by his debut on the ATP tour, without having ever played a single ITF-futures match. I think heàll be good but this may be a tad bit arrogant by whoever is managing his schedule...
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Maybe the third time will be the charm for Luca Van Assche when it comes to Challenger finals. The Belgian-born French teen has made it to the final in Valencia on outdoor clay and will play Ukrainian #1 Oleksii Krutykh on Sunday.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
No luck for Luca, crushed by Oleksii, 2&0.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Good luck for Luka in Maia, nabbing his first Challenger title (now 1-3) in a comeback vs Max Neucrist, 3-6 6-4 6-0.
On to Oz and he should get a seed in his pod with the new career high of #138.
Teens that should make it Down Under:
#1 Carlos Alcaraz (MD)
#11 Holger Rune (MD)
#129 Luca Nardi (qualies, seeded)
#138 Luca Van Assche (qualies, seeded)
#194 Jerry Shang (qualies)
#199 Francesco Maestrelli (qualies)
For Alcaraz and Rune, this is their last slam as a teen; Nardi has three left including AO; Maestrelli has all four in 2022. Shang is still 17 until February so he has 9 left. Van Assche has 5 left.
On to Oz and he should get a seed in his pod with the new career high of #138.
Teens that should make it Down Under:
#1 Carlos Alcaraz (MD)
#11 Holger Rune (MD)
#129 Luca Nardi (qualies, seeded)
#138 Luca Van Assche (qualies, seeded)
#194 Jerry Shang (qualies)
#199 Francesco Maestrelli (qualies)
For Alcaraz and Rune, this is their last slam as a teen; Nardi has three left including AO; Maestrelli has all four in 2022. Shang is still 17 until February so he has 9 left. Van Assche has 5 left.
Last edited:
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Jerry Shang qualified for MD and now has won his 1R match vs Oscar Otte.
Luca van Assche is also in MD via a WC. He’s drawn #11 seed Cam Norrie and plays later on the first day.
Alcaraz is out due to injury.
Rune is #9 seed and plays Day 2 vs Krajinovic.
Both Italian teens Nardi and Maestrelli lost 1R qualies.
Luca van Assche is also in MD via a WC. He’s drawn #11 seed Cam Norrie and plays later on the first day.
Alcaraz is out due to injury.
Rune is #9 seed and plays Day 2 vs Krajinovic.
Both Italian teens Nardi and Maestrelli lost 1R qualies.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
First match win at ATP Tour/slam level; equals Alcaraz’s 2021 AO win in first slam match but a couple of months older in age.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
All four top seeds in the Boys draw at AO are still alive; Killian Feldbausch (#1, SUI) has dominated his two matches; Ilyian Radulov (#2, BUL) lost his opening set in 1R but has won 4 sets in a row after that; the Belgian Blockx Heads are out in force cheering on #3 seed Alexander Blockx. #4 seed Arthur Gea (FRA) swatted aweigh @sureshs protégé Nandal in 2R.
Also alive is unseeded Learner Tien (USA) who WCed into USO’22 MD and took a set from seeded Kecmanovic in August. He’s in Radulov’s section.
Also alive is unseeded Learner Tien (USA) who WCed into USO’22 MD and took a set from seeded Kecmanovic in August. He’s in Radulov’s section.
Last edited:
stringertom
Bionic Poster
The rich get richer as the top 4 seeds plus Learner Tien take 5 QF slots. Radulov faces the already learned Tien.
Last edited:
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Three seeds bounced, one in a double bagel by Learner Tien.
Baseline_Bungle
Hall of Fame
His dominance this week says a lot about the progress of Federico Cinà, who instead pushed him to the very last point, and really should have won that match. Only 15, Cinà is another name that will be showing up on this thread within a year or two.
zvelf
Hall of Fame
Yeah, that's the only match Tien has faced any trouble whatsoever. The set scores for his other matches have been a ricidulous 6-0, 6-3, 6-0, 6-2, 6-0, 6-0.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Learner has won the dubs title with Joao Fonseca (BRA) and is in the singles final vs #3 seed Alexander Blockx (BEL). His SF win over Tomasz Berkieta (POL) was another straight set win, 4&2. Blockx has lost just one set, that occurring in the QF vs Tien’s dubs partner Fonseca.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Yes, Fonseca was his opponent, paired with his singles opponent Blockx.
Congrats to Cooper Williams and Tien!
zvelf
Hall of Fame
#7 Andreeva and #9 Korneeva, I guess both Russians because their flags are wiped out, are battling it out in the girls' singles final. It's been a pretty ugly match with about 140 errors between them over 3 sets. Neither hit very hard and there's a fair share of moonballs, so they engage in some long, grinding, exhausting rallies with the momentum constantly shifting back and forth, but you can tell they are putting everything they have into winning.
And it's over after 3 hours and 18 minutes with Korneeva winning 6-7 (2), 6-4, 7-5. Andreeva breaks down in tears and is just devastated.
And it's over after 3 hours and 18 minutes with Korneeva winning 6-7 (2), 6-4, 7-5. Andreeva breaks down in tears and is just devastated.
Last edited:
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Blockx breadsticked Tien but Learner leveled the match, 1-6 6-2. They are on serve at Tien serving 3-4.
Blockx plays a Tecnifibre, showing the French company is interested in developing the youth market even younger than Med/Swiatek. He reminds me a bit of the very young Berdych.
Blockx plays a Tecnifibre, showing the French company is interested in developing the youth market even younger than Med/Swiatek. He reminds me a bit of the very young Berdych.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Blockx holds to 5-4 after a 10-minute struggle with Tien. 3 aces didn’t hit his cause. A beautiful I/o FH was the forcing stroke to seal the hold.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Blockx wins the title on his third CP, 11-9 in the STB. Great third set from both kids!
Baseline_Bungle
Hall of Fame
THIJS BOOGAARD
Might as well get this name up here, as we'll be hearing it a lot - probably sooner rather than later. What this kid is doing is truly unheard of: basically went from winning Les Petits (U14) to instantly dominating at ITF junior level. Has not lost a match since turning 14, competing mostly against players 2 or 3 years older than him, and is currently on a 30-match winning streak with six consecutive tournament wins, including last week at the prestigious Coffee Cup in Costa Rica (Grade 1). For reference, someone like Holger Rune didn't win his first Grade 1 until two weeks after turning 16...
I know it's extremely early, and you just can't take junior results to the bank - but this one looks special. And while it would probably be premature, I wouldn't be shocked to see him get a WC for the Rotterdam qualies...
Might as well get this name up here, as we'll be hearing it a lot - probably sooner rather than later. What this kid is doing is truly unheard of: basically went from winning Les Petits (U14) to instantly dominating at ITF junior level. Has not lost a match since turning 14, competing mostly against players 2 or 3 years older than him, and is currently on a 30-match winning streak with six consecutive tournament wins, including last week at the prestigious Coffee Cup in Costa Rica (Grade 1). For reference, someone like Holger Rune didn't win his first Grade 1 until two weeks after turning 16...
I know it's extremely early, and you just can't take junior results to the bank - but this one looks special. And while it would probably be premature, I wouldn't be shocked to see him get a WC for the Rotterdam qualies...
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Alex Michelsen, SoCal’s latest teen trying out the pro circuit, is 18, won a Futures and made a final (9-1 in 2023) before getting a WC into the Cleveland Challenger. He’s now on court 1R vs Jacques Chaussette and has won the first set in a TB.
stringertom
Bionic Poster
Michelsen wins 6&4! NCH 408.