| German success story: Friedsam and Krawietz |
 After 30 years the International German Junior Championships were held again at the LTTC “Rot-Weiss” and both single champion titles remained in Germany. After a week of far from ideal weather conditions, the two singles finals were played in front of a spectacular lake view in perfect weather. Over 400 spectators enjoyed those surroundings and could satisfy themselves of the outstanding performance of the junior participants.
In a dramatic final, charged with emotions, Anna-Lena Friedsam could secure her third victory in a row, playing in four finals in four week’s time. After her defeat in the singles final at the grade 1 tournament in Offenbach, her German champion title in Ludwigshafen and her success at the grade 2 Biesterbos Open in the Netherlands, she crowned her success story with the champion title at the most important German tournament, winning against the Russian Yulia Putintseva. Unfortunately Putintseva behaved unsportsmanlike and very aggressively during the match, antagonizing the spectators. Every narrow decision was doubted and cursed by her, the climax being an obscene gesture after the match ball, which brought on a chorus of “Boos” from the audience. It was not an easy task for tournament director, Bernd Warneck, to quiet down everybody for the scheduled award ceremony. At the award ceremony, presented by Franz Feldbausch, who is an honorary member of the German Tennis Federation, Putintseva, too, got her well earned applause for a sensational performance in the girls’ final. She still has to work hard on an adequate, sportsmanlike behaviour, though. Anna-Lena Friedsam was of course enthusiastically celebrated. After she fell behind with 0 – 3  in the third set, Anna-Lena found back to her true form and didn’t lose another game. Scoring 3 – 6, 6 – 2 and 6 – 3, the 15-year old exceptional talent managed to win her most important title up to now, upgrading her among the top 30 players in the world ranking.Also Kevin Krawietz from Coburg achieved a raving success: winner of the grade 1 tournament in Offenbach, doubles Wimbledon champion a week ago, and now champion of the airberlin german juniors. In a completely German final with few exciting moments he beat Richard Becker from Bielefeld without any problems, scoring 6 – 2, 6 – 2. Becker didn’t manage to continue his magnificent performance, which he e.g. showed during the semi-final against Alex Georgoudas. Thanks to their achievements in Berlin, both, Karwietz and Georgoudas, will find themselves among the top 20 of the world ranking, Becker will be among the top 30 players.  In the doubles competition the German participants were less successful. At the girls juniors Sophia Kovalets (UKR)/Demi Schuurs (NED) won the title with 10:4 in the match tie-break against Cecilia Costa Melgar (CHI)/Yuliana Lizarazo (COL). At the doubles final of the boys juniors the decision was reached in the match tie break as well. Toni Androic (CRO)/Dominik Wirlend (AUT) won against Sam Barry (IRL)/Garret Brasseaux (USA), scoring 10:7.All in all the review of the past tournament week will be a very positive one. Although the weather conditions were far from ideal, the tournament schedule was followed with only a few exceptions. All matches were monitored by umpires, apart from the first round, and in the finals the players were assisted by ball boys and girls. The young talents of Germany proved that they are well able to hold their own in international competitions and they managed to reach the top level of world junior tennis. Berlin and the LTTC “Rot-Weiss” are looking forward to host the, by than, 34th International German Junior Championships, from the 6th to the 11th of July, 2010. |
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