7th March 2007
Movers & Shakers Update
by Rose Mather
Back to back grade two wins, at the Uruguay Bowl and last week's Argentina Cup, gave Stephane Piro (5) of France and Julia Glushko (1) from Israel, a bolster up the junior ITF ranking charts. Stephane moved up to 22nd position, closing in on the top ten boys, while top seeded Julia worked her way up eight more slots to number 35. David Rice of Great Britain's singles finalist showing and doubles victory sprung him up 21 places to number 56. The 7th seeded Brit had a great tournament, upsetting the number one seed, Rupesh Roy of India in the quarterfinals before falling to the 5th seeded Frenchman in the final. Meantime, Kurumi Nara of Japan, who lost to Julia in the girl's singles final for the second week in a row, benefited by leaping up to the 47th spot from 73rd.

Hanna Orlik (2), who just turned 14 years of age two days ago, gave herself an early birthday present when she won her fourth junior ITF event at the International Bavarian Junior Challenge in Germany. The Belarussian, who never dropped a set on the way to victory has been on a roll since sweeping Les Petits As, the prestigious under 14 event in Tarbes, France at the beginning of the year. Afterwards she won the CASIO ITF also in Germany, before competing in her last 14 and under event at the Winter Cup team event in Leeuwarden, Netherlands two weeks ago. Meanwhile on the boy's side, unseeded Ralph Regus of Germany, playing in his first junior event this year, swept the championships by winning his first singles and doubles titles.

Americans Devin Britton and Nicole Bartnik triumphed in singles at the El Salvador Open. Devin made it a double whammy by also capturing the doubles title with Michael Davis of Great Britain.

In Lithuania, last years boy's finalist Dzmitry Zhyrmont from Belgium stepped up as winner and Edyta Cieplucha of Poland took home her first ITF junior singles trophy at the Siauliai Mayor's Cup.

The member of the winning 2006 Junior Davis Cup team for the Netherlands, Xander Spong (1) hailed victorious at the Oslo Indoor in Norway and Italy's Nastassja Burnett (5) won the girls trophy.

Meantime, the Adelaide ITF broke ground for first time with local players Stepanie Jeanes (6) and Brendan McKenzie (1) taking center stage. Brendan had to go to the winner's podium twice to receive his singles and doubles awards.

On the pro circuit, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark won her second 75k of the year last week in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Ling Zhang of Hong Kong China won the 10k in Wellington, New Zealand, with local wild card Kairangi Vano taking home the second prize. Brazil's Ana Clara Duarte won her first title at the Benin City 10k with fellow junior Carla Beltrami of Argentina falling to Ana in the quarters. On the boys side, American junior, Donald Young, worked his way into the quarters at the F5 Futures in Harlingen, TX, USA.

2007 Movers & Shakers: