Potchefstroom, South Africa – Last year in Namibia, Capetonian - Pierre Malan reached the final of his first international junior tennis tournament. Malan vowed to himself to go one better in 2018.
On Saturday in Potchefstroom, Malan delivered on his promise to himself when he captured the RVTA Pukke Junior ITF 2. Seeded four, Malan shocked the defending champion and top seed, Christiaan Worst also of South Africa 6-3 7-5.
It took Malan 1 hour 27 minutes to win his maiden international singles title and he was overjoyed having done so, “It’s an amazing feeling and I am in a great space with my game” said Malan.
It was the second win for Malan over Worst in the last six months with Malan having the better of Worst in a Futures event in Stellenbosch late last year, “That win over Christiaan in Stellenbosch gave me confidence for today. And in turn, the win today will build my confidence for the big tournament next week in Pretoria.”
Last week in the RVTA Pukke Junior ITF 1 at the same venue, Malan suffered a hip injury which played a part in him losing in the semi-finals to eventual tournament winner and best friend, Kholo Montsi.
This week Malan got revenge over Montsi, also ironically in the semi-finals losing only one game.
“That hip injury was no excuse but it bothered me all week. I treated it after losing to Kholo and gave it enough rest so I was ready for this week.” admitted Malan.
Malan said that he felt the secret to his win this week was he was a calmer player on court, “I was really focused a relaxed, felt positive as a result and that allowed me not to make many unforced errors and serve well. This were key to my success this week.”
It seems that Potchefstroom is a good hunting ground for first time tournament winners. In the girls singles, sixth seed - Matilde Mariani of Italy won her first international beating unseeded Tilwith Di Girolami of Belgium 6-3 6-2 for title honours. Mariani dominated from start to finish in the 1 hour 10 minute battle breaking serve early in both sets to take control.
“I feel very good at winning my first title. I travelled over 13 000 km to win this trophy and the trip down south from my home town in Tuscany was well worth it.” said Mariani.
Mariani is part of the Italian Tennis Federation high performance programme and trains at the national tennis centre in Foligno, coached by Riccardo Rosolin and Sebastian Vasquez. 16-year-old Mariani is earmarked as a player to watch for in the future.
Coach Rosolin, the coach of former world number 1, Ana Ivanovic said that he was proud of his charge, “Matilde is a great listener and implementer of instruction. We came to Potchefstroom knowing the altitude would be a challenge but Matilde, who normally plays the ball flat and hard, worked on introducing spin to her game, got her serve to work well as well as her return game and made sure that she could play quick balls.”
Rosolin said that as the tournament went deeper, Mariani played better, “Matilde played a great semi-final and final and is looking good for next week’s Pretoria event.”
The win over Di Girolami in the final was solid. Di Girolami has had a good two weeks, having qualified last week for the first event and winning it and getting to the finals today. The pressure was on Matilde, especially since Di Girolami beat Matilda’s touring partner, Matilde Paoletti in Friday’s semi-final.”
In the boys doubles, the title went to South Africa with Gerhardt Becker (Pretoria) and Joubert Klopper (Bloemfontein) beating Alexander Hoogmartens and Noah Martens of Belgium 7-5 6-3.
The girls doubles was won by unseeded Israeli’s Mika Dagan Fruchtman and Lorin Tilipman. In the final they beat South Africa’s Lize-Alet Morkel and Rochelle Pienaar 4-6 6-3 10-8.
The Southern African swing of the international junior tennis tour now moves to the country’s capital for next week’s Brooklyn Union Axnosis ITF.