The Official Teenage Tennis Talent Thread

[stringertom]

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]

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]

"I was comfortable from the first point. I didn't feel any pressure. You know... I'm a chill guy."

- Mili "The Mouth" Poljicak

 

[stringertom]

"I was comfortable from the first point. I didn't feel any pressure. You know... I'm a chill guy."

- Mili "The Mouth" Poljicak

Perhaps @Nostradamus should watch to find out his call of Zheng winning the title was slightly premature and incorrect.

#Poljicakreshs FTW!

 

[ttwreader]

I watched the replay of the boys' singles final match today. Fats / Mili "The Mouth" Poljicak is a real thing. Lots of fun. LOL.

 

[stringertom]

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.

 

[Aabye5]

Luca Nardi, 18, joins fellow qualifier Topo in the 500 series event.

 

[Baseline_Bungle]

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

And while we're at it, another name that deserves mention on this thread is Francesco Maestrelli, 19 and 193 cm, about to crack the top 500 for the first time next week, not as precocious and maybe not as talented (in the "traditional" sense) as his better-known countrymen, but he has a big booming serve (when he actually hits it flat, which he still does too seldom) and a nice modern game that should make him a tour-level player in a couple of years time.

 

[stringertom]

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.

 

[stringertom]

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.

 

[Baseline_Bungle]

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]

All but Carlos out at Hamburg and he was not far from joining the less than Fantastic Four.

 

[stringertom]

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.

 

[BGod]

16 year old Gabriel Debru played a tough SF losing to eventual 22 year old champ ranked 466, Debru is 688. But Debru is #1 Jr, something to look out for.

 

[Aabye5]

Dominic Stricker turns 20 in August, but for now he still counts as a teen champ. He wins on home soil in Zug over Gulbis, 57 61 63.

 

[stringertom]

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.

 

[FeroBango]

Alcaraz has 75 wins in his first hundred matches now. Hope he continues to rise up.

 

[James P]

Jerry Shang took out Ronan Safiullin today, a fairly high-end Challenger level player. Into his first career Challenger SF.

 

[James P]

Welcome to the top 300, Juncheng Shang, only <18 in the top 500 into his first Challenger final in Lexington. Big, big result.

 

[Baseline_Bungle]

Welcome to the top 300, Juncheng Shang, only <18 in the top 500 into his first Challenger final in Lexington. Big, big result.

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

 

[James P]

This thread hasn't been bumped in a minute, but Luca van Assche (18 years old, born May 11th of 2004) just made his first ATP Challenger final. He'll play for the Lisbon title tomorrow against veteran Marco Cecchinato.

 

[stringertom]

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.

 

[James P]

US Open Boys' Champ Martin Landaluce will make his ATP Tour debut next week in Gijon. He'll be the first man born in 2006 to appear in an ATP Tour match.

 

[Baseline_Bungle]

US Open Boys' Champ Martin Landaluce will make his ATP Tour debut next week in Gijon. He'll be the first man born in 2006 to appear in an ATP Tour match.

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...

 

[James P]

Arthur Fils (18 years old) will make his ATP debut this week in Paris after winning his two rounds in quallies. Luca Van Assche (also 18) is in his second ATP Challenger final in a couple months.

 

[stringertom]

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]

No luck for Luca, crushed by Oleksii, 2&0.

 

[stringertom]

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.

 

[stringertom]

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.

 

[James P]

Impressive for a 17 year old to win a match at the majors. Might be a top 100 breakthrough by the end of the season.

 

[stringertom]

Impressive for a 17 year old to win a match at the majors. Might be a top 100 breakthrough by the end of the season.

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]

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.

 

[stringertom]

The rich get richer as the top 4 seeds plus Learner Tien take 5 QF slots. Radulov faces the already learned Tien.

 

[stringertom]

Three seeds bounced, one in a double bagel by Learner Tien.

 

[Baseline_Bungle]

Three seeds bounced, one in a double bagel by Learner Tien.

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.

 

[ey039524]

Learner's in the dubs final, too.

 

[zvelf]

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.

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]

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.

 

[ey039524]

Learner played w/ Williams in dubs. I'm hoping he wins both.

 

[stringertom]

Learner played w/ Williams in dubs. I'm hoping he wins both.

Yes, Fonseca was his opponent, paired with his singles opponent Blockx.

Congrats to Cooper Williams and Tien!

 

[zvelf]

#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.

 

[stringertom]

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.

 

[stringertom]

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]

Blockx wins the title on his third CP, 11-9 in the STB. Great third set from both kids!

 

[Baseline_Bungle]

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...

 

[stringertom]

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]

Michelsen wins 6&4! NCH 408.

 

[stringertom]

Lost in the very large shadow of the 175 Challenger in Phoenix and second week of IW: a Challenger (50) was held in Szekesfehervar (HUN) and the winner of his second career Challenger title was Hamad Medjedovic (19) of Serbia. He remains perfect (5-0) in Futures/Challengers finals and at a new career high #192.

 

[James P]

After receiving a wild card to Miami quallies, 17 year old Belgian Alexander Blockx has taken the first set in his opening qually match .

 

[stringertom]

After receiving a wild card to Miami quallies, 17 year old Belgian Alexander Blockx has taken the first set in his opening qually match .

Watanuki has a 3-6 6-3 3-0 lead now.

Alexander has the requisite building Blockx for a successful pro career though. He made the final of his second career Futures match a couple of weeks ago. Beat a guy named Borg along the way.