4-13 Dec 2006
Sunday 10th December 2006
The weather participated today, with calm sunshine and a pleasant temperature of 23° C.

Lion killer, Alex, and Nikola win Orange Bowl titles
by Annie Paton
The year end demolisher of champions has done it again. Petru Alexandru Luncanu (4) wins his second junior championship by serving and volleying his way to victory over Nicolas Santos (1), stopping the Brazilian from winning back to back titles. 15 year old Nikola Hofmanova, showed her win over Ksenia Milevskaya (2) at Wimbledon was no fluke when she defeated her on the big stage in Key Biscayne.

The very loud and exciting boy's final had cheering sections on both sides of the stadium. On one side sat all the Romanian fans, including ex-junior player and Davis Cup practice partner, Horia Tecau, and team captain, Florin Segarceaunu. "I was in the team in the last two ties when Romania played Davis Cup," said Petru Alexandru, known to his teammates as 'Alex. "We are kind of a family, we help each other, so they were around here and they came to see me. There are also some Romanians who live in Miami who came to support me."

The Romanian player knew he had to attack the net to defeat the Brazilian backboard, who normally unnerves his opponents by screaming winners from behind the baseline. He broke serve at 3-2 in the first set, when Nicolas double faulted at 30-all, then miscued a forehand that landed six feet beyond the baseline. He held his own serve at love and at 5-2 he broke again in a long game on his third break point for the first set, when Nicolas whacked a backhand cross court wide.

"I knew I would have to make all the points because he's not making any mistakes," said Alex, about his strategy for the match. "I had to push myself into the court otherwise I wouldn't have so many chances. Even if I make some mistakes, I was making more winners than errors so that was the difference."

Alex was not hindered by the incessant vocal ranting coming from the Brazilian in his native Portuguese. However, when Nicolas screamed out a curse of frustration, the umpire, determined to keep the match under control and gave him another warning, which resulted in a point penalty. They started off the first game of the second set at 15-0 to the Romanian. Nicolas never protested and amazingly broke in that game and held for a two love lead.

Alex continued to attack the net, erasing a couple of break opportunities to hold with an exquisite backhand down the line winner. He crushed a big forehand crosscourt for two break points on Nicolas's serve, and only needed one which he won with another deadly backhand down the line.

At 2-all the steam seemed to temporarily go out of Alex's sails as he failed to find a first serve in that game and consequently was broken. There were rumblings in the crowd that he may becoming tired from playing three matches yesterday; a tough singles against Donald Young and two doubles matches. Jumping at the opportunity, the Brazilian won the next two games to lead 5-2, but Alex showed he still had something left in the tank. He took the next two games, however Nicolas made no mistake serving for the set the second time. After cranking up a 40-15 lead he won the set when Alex netted the backhand return.

"I felt a bit tired in the beginning of the second set but then I recovered and I tried to rally and run much more," said the left handed player from Bucharest. "I knew there was another set coming so I didn't think about it. I tried to forget it and play like in the first set, to be more aggressive and to go to net."

The third had so much intensity the crowd were beside themselves with excitement. The Romanian played to his cheering section, with a plentiful supply of fist pumps and 'come on Alex', while on the opposite side all you could hear was 'vamoose' from the Brazilian supporters as Nicolas grunted and groaned with every strike of the ball. The first two games were peppered with break points however both held for one-game-all. In the next two they swapped breaks for 2-all, however, Alex nabbed the crucial break when at 15-40 on his opponent's serve, he whipped a cross court winner on his backhand side to go ahead 4-2. His supporters stood up in jubilation, anticipating the win.

After holding for 5-2 the lion killer appeared poised for victory, however Nicolas would not lie down, and held on with an ace before winning his service game.

Alex double faulted in the first point serving for the match at 5-3, however, he crushed the short reply in the next point with a forehand cross court winner. He approached the net and put away the volley for 30-all and set up his first championship point when Nicolas's backhand return landed wide. The shot that had been working all day, the forehand down the line, suddenly landed deep and they were back to deuce, but after a long rally he creamed another forehand down the line and this time it was a winner. In the next match point, Nicolas replied with a drop shot which Alex retrieved then Nicolas tried to pass him cross court, but Alex cut it off at full stretch and won the championship with a crisp backhand volley down the sideline. Thrilled and excited Alex fell to the ground for a few minutes with his hands over his eyes, almost incredulous that he had won it.

"Luncanu really deserved this match," said Nicolas, very sporting in defeat. "He played very aggressive, hitting winners all the time and he changed the direction of the ball very often."

The girl's final was a more toned down affair, as Nikola Hofmanova (9) stormed to a 5-2 lead before her opponent, Ksenia Milevskaya (2) found her footing. Ksenia fought back to 5-games-all by winning a string of three games. However Nikola won the next two for the first set. She came back herself in the second set, after falling behind 1-3, by winning five straight games to be the first champion from Austria.

"I slept in the first three games of the second set, but I won the important game for 3-all," said the Czech born player. "She was a bit angry and put the ball everywhere. When I was 5-2 up I stopped playing my game and she started to play more aggressive and tried to play more from the net, but I broke her so much today."

Her opponent had to agree with her. "I was getting mad at myself and I didn't play well," Ksenia said. "I was not confident today and after I lose the first set everything changed."

Meantime, 15 year old Nikola is overjoyed and overwhelmed with her win. "It was a great feeling to be in the final and win the whole tournament," she said. "Last year I was looking at the 18s girls and I was thinking, 'oh my God, they are so good. Now I won, so it's a great feeling."

Now she will go back to Austria to celebrate with her family. "We celebrate on the 24th in the evening and not like USA which is 25th in the morning," she said. "We will cook Potato Salad and Schnitzel and soup and then we will open the presents."

In contrast Alex, the newly crowned boy's 18 Orange Bowl champion, will have no time to think about celebrating or the holidays just yet. He barely had time to talk to reporters after the match, before dashing to the airport for Mexico, where he will defend his title at the Yucatan Cup.

Meanwhile the girl's 18 doubles final was played amid all the excitement of the two singles matches and it was a quick affair. Sorana Cirstea (ROM) and Urszula Radwanska ( POL) (2) found some retribution for losing in the round of 16 in singles by upending Sharon Fichman (CAN) and Katerina Vankova (CZE) (1) for the title, 6-3; 6-1.

Because of rain delays they had an unscheduled day off yesterday and came out perhaps fresher than their opponents. "It was pretty easy, so we were surprised it was like this," said Sorana. "This was good for my confidence winning in doubles."

Her partner agrees. "It's good we won in doubles," said Urszula, who celebrated her 16th birthday during these championships. "It's the first time I play with Sorana so that was very nice."

As for Nicolas Santos, it was not his day. He elected not to take a rest break after his monumental effort in the singles final and went straight into playing the doubles final with Fernando Romboli where they lost to the third seeds, Danila Arsenov ( RUS) and Roman Jebavy (CZE) 6-2; 6-4.

"We broke him five times," said Danila, about Nicolas. "He was so tired."

"He didn't win one serve," countered his partner, Roman. "We also broke Romboli for the first time at 5-4 in the second set and that was the biggest game of the match."

Not taking anything away from Danila and Roman, who are playing together for the first time, we asked them what is the reason for their success in the championships. "He has good volleys and together we have a good return," said Danila, who plans to play with Roman again. "In Australian Open he will play with another player, but at French Open, Wimbledon and US Open we will play together."


Previous Orange Bowl:
2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999

Petru Alexandru Luncanu


Nikola Hofmanova


Ksenia Milevskaya


Danila Arsenov & Roman Jebavy


Sharon Fichman & Katerina Vankova