27th May 2007
Anastasia and Matteo reign in Italy
by Annie Paton
Anastasia Pivovarova (1) and Matteo Trevisan (4) are the toast of Italy, after winning the Trofeo Bonfiglio at the 48th Italian Open.

What started off as a late and very wet affair ended with players hoisting their trophies under clear skies in the evening. The fanfare of introducing the finalists in front of rows of officials, linesmen, ball boys and girls holding flags, was interrupted in the girl's final, planned for 1:45pm because of TV scheduling. No sooner had they played the Russian national anthem for Anastasia and the Serbian national anthem for Bojana Jovanovski, a nasty lightening storm erupted sending spectators fleeing for the exits on the big Court Central.

After a wait for an hour and a half, and after some cosmetic filling in of the clay, the girl's final finally began. Anastasia started very motivated and ready to take on the unseeded Serbian; famous for making miraculous comebacks. She had a lead of 6-4; 2-1 when once again rain temporarily stopped proceedings.

"I was thinking who is this nice person who put us at 1:45," said Anastasia, half jokingly about her mad dash to leave the court. "The weather was very clear this morning and the sky was blue."

Meantime, the fifteen year old Serbian, compared to a young Monica Seles by spectators because of her similar tenacity and same nationality, lost the next two games after the match resumed. She had three break chances in the first game and love-40 on her own serve in the second game before fighting back to level with four deuces, then conceding it with a forehand into the net.

Anastasia now had a set a set and 4-1 but you could never count out Bojana, who won the title last week in Santa Croce after coming back many times from behind and who is competing in her third straight junior ITF final. The Russian top seed lead 30-love in the next game before putting so much into her serve she double faulted twice and then conceded the game when her forehand found the net.

"The balls were heavy, because of the rain," Anastasia admitted. "It was a little bit hard to serve at the beginning so I had to try to go for my shots."

Anyone watching the two previous rounds, and seeing the intensity build, were half expecting this to be a turning point and Bojana to do another one of her amazing comebacks.

"She's a good player and much better, so I cannot do that," Bojana said, smiling at the suggestion of doing another Houdini act. "Perhaps against another player, but today it was not possible against her ... but maybe it's enough for me and maybe I'm tired, I don't know."

Serving for the title at 5-2, Anastasia stepped it up like at no other time this championship. Despite going down 0-40, she fought hard, pumped her fist several times and called out 'come on' after rattling off five straight points, including two aces, one of which was on championship point, 6-4; 6-2.

"I had a very good feeling to win the match," said Anastasia, who trains six months of the year at the Evert Tennis Academy in Florida. "To win was very hard but I just had to fight and it gives me a lot of energy. I am very happy. Anytime you win a tournament it's like a great moment."

After the presentation photos and interviews both girls dashed to the airport: Anastasia home to Moscow where she competes in a $25,000 event courtesy of a wild card into the main draw and Bojana who is excited to be returning home to Belgrade after being away for over four weeks.

The boy's final started immediately afterwards, with the same pomp and ceremony and French and Italian national anthems played. The local newspapers reported that Matteo Trevisan (4) was in the final against number two seed, Stephane Piro of France, which succeeded in attracting a larger than average crowd.

Although he lost in straight sets to Matteo the last time they played, Stephane was first out of the box to capture the first set, 7-5. The crowd, however, lifted the heavily favored Italian who stormed through the next two sets to capture his first grade A championship and his country's biggest prize in junior tennis, the Trofeo Bonfiglio, with a scoreline of 5-7; 6-2; 6-1.

"For me I don't know why but at the moment I find it difficult when I start the match in the first set," said Matteo, capturing his third junior ITF title in a row. "Maybe I am a little tired but for me it's difficult entering the match."

The two singles champions have taken a big leap in the junior ITF ranking, Matteo overtook Jonathan Eysseric of France as the number one boy and Anastasia moved to number two behind the other Russian Anastasia: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who withdrew from this event because of injury.

For her fantastic efforts, Bojana moved up to 15th position, and it will be interesting to see if she will still have to qualify for Roland Garros. Meantime, Stephane moved a few slots to 4th ranked position.

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