15th March 2007
Movers & Shakers Update
by Rose Mather
Lots of moving and shaking in the rankings this week as the tennis season heats up and more events are held.

The clay courts in Paraguay at the grade 1 Asuncion Bowl produced a few stars in itself, propelling boy's winner Daniel Evans of Great Britain into the top 25 all the way from 52nd place. Julia Glushko from Israel captured her third consecutive singles title in South America and jumped into the top 20 bracket of the girl's world rankings.

Meantime in Central America at the Costa Rica Bowl, G3, Tanya Raykova of Bulgaria snatched her third singles crown while Canada's Samuel Garforth Bles broke through to win his first.

Radu Albot (1) MDA showed off home court advantage when he swept the ITF grade 3 Trofeul D Sturdza in Moldova, winning both singles and doubles events on indoor carpet. This win moved Radu from 17 to 13, as he eased ever closer to the top 10. In the final, Radu bypassed his doubles partner Dzmitry Zhyrmont BLR, who had a great week moving from 99th into 79th place in the rankings. Girls winner, Ionela Iova ROM, also swept the championships, which earned her a 161st position up from 226.

Also indoors at the Kramfors High Coast G-3 Sweden, Matthew James GBR and Nastassja Burnett ITA raised aloft the singles trophies. Nastassja also won the doubles trophy, adding to her bulging suitcase from the previous week in Oslo.

Mikhail Biryukov RUS and Anja Maskaljun EST pulled it out on indoor carpet at the Enri Open in Latvia and Austria's Daniel Schmidt and Amandine Hesse of France were victorious on clay in Algeria at the 2nd Tlemcen. Girls Luxembourg Open winner Kataryzyna Piter, POL leapt into 38th spot from 49th while boys winner Ilija Martinoski remains in the top 50.

Good job for Grant Ive RSA to capture the singles and doubles championships in Brunei, his first junior ITF trophies. Meanwhile, three times a charm for Jawariah Noordin MAS, who won her 3rd in girl's singles.

Other first timers in singles are Alex Sanders AUS and Stephanie Wiltshire AUS, who won in the warmer climes of Australia at the Gosford ITF.

Honorable mentions goes to those that shook up the pack in the rankings this week: Stephane Piro FRA, finalist at the Asuncion Bowl moved up from 22nd to 15th, Ricardo Urzua Rivera CHI, with a singles semifinals and doubles finals showing, moved up from 27th to 19th and Alejandro Gonzalez COL jumped up from 50 to 37 with his singles and doubles semifinals' results. Thanks to another good week David Rice GBR eased into 43rd spot from 56th.

Making it to the finals at the Luxembourg Open moved Goran Rozic CRO 19 spots to 51st in the rankings. Just behind him in the 52nd spot Daniel Cox GBR nudged upwards after his quarterfinal result at the Asuncion Bowl. Luxembourg semifinalist Cesar Ramirez MEX moved up from 79th to 63rd.

In girls action, the greatest leap came from Lenka Jurikova SVK moving into 86th place from 126th with her singles semifinalist and doubles finalist results in Luxembourg. Asuncion Bowl singles and doubles semifinalist, Victoria Larriee FRA catapulted from 105 to 67. Others entering into the top 100 rankings were Nelly Ciolkowski FRA, Monica Gorny RSA and returning once again, Roxana Vaideanu ITA. Singles quarterfinalist and doubles winner at the Asuncion Bowl, Kurumi Nara JPN, moved up several more slots to number 40.

Junior boys shaking it up in the pros by getting to the quarterfinal rounds are: Donald Young at the F6, 15k in Texas USA and Martin Klizan at the F1, 15k in Morocco. The girls had a little more action on the pro circuit this past week as Ana Clara Duarte, playing Benin City, Federica Di Sarra a qualifier at the Quartu Sant Eena 10k, and Mariana Duque Marino at Toluca 10k, all made it to the finals. In Jersey, Great Britain, qualifier Sherazade Benamar ended up in the semifinals, while wild card Annabel Bann lost in the quarters. Other quarterfinalists were Ana Savic at the Sabadell, 10k, qualifiers Anastassia Vasylyeva and Manana Shapakidze at the Ramat Hasharon 10k and last but not least, Ling Zhang, at the Hamilton, NZ 10k.

2007 Movers & Shakers: