Boys: Wimbledon 2014, grass - Grade A (Weeks 26/27)

Spectator · All-time great

RE: Boys: Wimbledon 2014, grass - Grade A (Weeks 26/27)

DavidC · Tennis legend

QF

(8) Johan Sebastien Tatlot (FRA) v (WC) Joshua Sapwell

Tatlot has an ATP ranking of 545 as well as being a top junior. Chung v Kozlov, which Spectator highlighted as the potential semifinal opponents, appears the match of the round. Hyeon Chung lost in 2 tight sets in the final last year, whilst Kozlov's prodigious talent was on display earlier against Kyle

DavidC · Tennis legend

Josh should be streamed again. Brief report on his round 3: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/28148695

QF

(8) Johan Sebastien Tatlot (FRA) v (WC) Joshua Sapwell Ct 18 match 2

DF · Tennis legend

Players out warming up. Good luck to Josh!

Priesty · Challenger level

Gone to a 1st set TB - currently 3-3....

LordBrownof · Futures level

Loses it. He's playing OK but the length of his groundstrokes is too short.

Priesty · Challenger level

According to a tweet Josh lost 7-6(7-5) 6-1. Thus there endeth the British junior and senior Wimbledon singles challenge this year bleh

-- Edited by Priesty on Friday 4th of July 2014 01:51:06 PM

Spectator · All-time great

Well done to Mr Sapwell for getting to the QFs - and not a bad opening set against a fine player. Tatlot-Kozlov should be fun, too. Both seem to quite like grass.

Spectator · All-time great

Kozlov-Rubin for the final. A good final, and they're both good players. At the same time, Zverev has just won the Braunschweig Challenger, beating three top-100 players along the way ...

DavidC · Tennis legend

Although there have been a smattering of American players in the final this is the first all-American final since 1977 apparently. Linking two of the players mentioned by Spectator this is Kozlov's second grand slam final of the year, unusual for someone with another 2 years as a junior after this (though I imagine he won't actually be playing junior events after this year). In the first he lost easily to Zverev.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Kozlov to me looks like a classic example of a top junior player, who will really struggle to translate all that potential to the senior game. Weak serve and no obvious weapons, we shall see.

TMH · Futures qualifying

Kozlov reminds me of Donald Young at the same age.

Bear in mind he is only 16, so still has a couple of years to grow both in height and in physical stature.

-- Edited by TMH on Saturday 5th of July 2014 11:08:34 PM

DavidC · Tennis legend

A tight final until Noah Rubin broke Stefan Kozlov twice in a row from 3-3 in the decider to win 6-4 4-6 6-3. Neither possesses big weapons, with Rubin's strongpoint being speed around the court - though he nearly paid for overdoing the dropshots

Spectator · All-time great

And like Young, Rubin is from outside the USTA system. It's not just in England, then ...

Seem like good eggs - like the way they were so encouraging of each other after the match. Would agree with TMH that it's hard to evaluate where Mr Kozlov will go in two or three years' time. Interesting that Mr Rubin's going to university - is he the first junior GS singles winner to do so?

Still think this was an odd year: can't think of a year where so many of the best eligible players (Zverev, Garin, Coric, Kokkinakis, Khachanov) didn't play.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Spectator wrote:
And like Young, Rubin is from outside the USTA system. It's not just in England, then ...

Seem like good eggs - like the way they were so encouraging of each other after the match. Would agree with TMH that it's hard to evaluate where Mr Kozlov will go in two or three years' time. Interesting that Mr Rubin's going to university - is he the first junior GS singles winner to do so?

Still think this was an odd year: can't think of a year where so many of the best eligible players (Zverev, Garin, Coric, Kokkinakis, Khachanov) didn't play.

Yes. Quite a few of the girls didn't go either. Fiona Ferro said how glad she was with her decision not to go - but then, she did make the final of the 25k in Denain that week, and took the winner to three sets, so you can see her point.

But, then, Rubin had only played one other junior event the whole season - the French Open. So just the two grand slams as his only junior events. (Junior tennis among 17 and 18 year-olds is a strange sport and not that representative of what's really going on).

That's why Rubin had to qualify. Frankly, Marcus Walters' loss of 6-3 7-6(4) to Rubin in the qualifiers looks ultra respectable when you think Rubin breezed through qualis and went on to win the actual title.