OBERHACHING, February 16, 2020 (by Dietmar Kaspar)
The 2020 Dunlop Bavarian Junior Winter Championships, an ITF Junior World Tennis Tour J3 event, was held at the TennisBase Oberhaching in the south of Munich this week.
The boys‘ singles competition was dominated by players from the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar with Abdellah Shelbayh and Daniel Rincon reaching the final, as well as Marc Othman Ktiri going to the semis.
Sixteen-year-old Shelbayh from Jordan, who knocked off the tournament’s top favourite and defending champion Alexander Hoogmartens from Belgium in the stage of the last eight in two sets, battled through the top half of the draw, beating his Spanish practice partner Othman Ktiri in the semi-finals in straight sets. Ktiri stopped the run of local hero Max Rehberg in the quarter-finals in two close sets.
Following his straight-sets win against Daniel Siniakov from the Czech Republic, 17-year-old Spaniard Daniel Rincon, the reigning Orange Bowl champion, emerged victorious from the semi-final clash versus Amaury Raynel from France in two sets. Raynel battled past Polish No. 2 seed Aleksander Orlikowski in the stage of the final eight in straight sets.
After losing the first set in the championship match between two lefties, Rincon secured a comeback win by the score of 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. The Avila resident celebrated his third title on the ITF Junior World Tennis Tour.
„It is the biggest title I have ever won, so I am very happy about it,” Rincon commented. „I was a break down in the second set, but I actually felt that I could come back and raised my level to get the final win.”
Havlickova with sensational run
Lucie Havlickova from the Czech Republic captured the girls‘ singles title. The Prague-born dropped only one set in seven matches, starting in the qualifying competition.
In the semi-finals, the 14-year-old battled past Yvonna Zuffova from Slovakia in straight sets.
Elizaveta Shebekina from Russia, who defeated defending champion Laura Isabel Putz of Germany in a tough three-sets clash in the opening round, made the last step to the final by beating Nicole Rivkin from Germany. Rivkin got victorious from the all-German quarter-final battle against top seeded Julia Middendorf, winning the tie-break of the deciding set.
Havlickova, who practices at the venue of Sparta Praha, sealed a 6-4, 6-3 victory in the title match to lift her second trophy on the ITF Junior World Tennis Tour.
„It is so amazing and really unbelievable, because when you start in the qualifying, you do not think about winning the tournament,” Havlickova told Tennis TourTalk. „I think I played faster and more aggressive because she strikes her backhand most time as a slice.”
Doubles action
The Slovakian duo Lukas Pokorny and Lukas Pavlovic clinched the boys‘ doubles title. They won the championship match against Max Rehberg and Philip Florig from Germany after a dramatic three-set battle by the score of 5-7, 6-3, 10-8.
Local hero Laura Putz from Germany took the girls‘ doubles trophy with her partner Alina Granwehr from Austria. They rallied past Irina Dshandshgava from Austria and singles runner-up Elizaveta Shebekina in the title match 2-6, 6-2, 10-4.
The Dunlop Bavarian Junior Winter Championships was the first part of the “ITF Double-Feature” at the TennisBase Oberhaching and will be followed by the Daikin Open 2020, an ITF World Tennis Tour M15 event.
