18th June 2007
Movers & Shakers
by Rose Mather
First things first. Congratulations to the champions of 2007 Roland Garros in Paris, France: Vladimir Ignatik (12) of Belarus and Alize Cornet (2) of France.

Vladimir earned the top spot in the world junior rankings for his first Grand Slam victory and his second in the grade A category. "It was my dream," he said, at the post match press conference. "One year ago I was (ranked) just 150 and I was watching on the website somebody explain French Open and I couldn't think I'm going to be here next year. But I'm here for this year and I won it. I'm really happy."

Alize moved her junior ranking up to number 8, however she announced this will be her last junior tournament as she continues with her pro career. "I am very proud because I won today in front of the French public at home," said Alize, who handled the pressure well, being France's last hope in the championships. "Before my first match in juniors I said to my coach I have to win the seven, I know I can do it and now it's the result. I can't believe it. Maybe this evening when I will sleep I will tell to myself I did it and it's wonderful."

Now one week later, Germany hosted the 15th Offenbach ITF grade 1 international junior event, and surprisingly both top seeds held their positions to capture the titles: Fernando Romboli (1) of Brazil moved from 5th to 3rd position in the boy's rankings and Ksenia Pervak (1) of Russia, jumped into the top ten at 9th place from 18th.

Other players benefited from a good result in Offenbach. Cristobal Saavedra of Chile leapt from 49th to 35th after reaching the semi's in singles and quarters in doubles. Jared Easton from Australia is up to 53rd place from 70th after making it into the singles quarterfinals and fellow country man Mark Verryth moved up from 86th to 69th. Meantime Aussie girl, Tyra Calderwood from Australia moved up from 48th to 33rd after reaching the doubles finals and quarterfinals in singles.

Boy's qualifier Marin Milan from Croatia had to knock out the 4th and 5th seeds en-route to winning the grade 2 Epitok Cup in Hungary, while top seed Alexandra Damaschin from Romania claimed her second ITF junior singles title by never dropping a set in the tournament plus she increased her ranking from 85th to 62nd. The top 100 boys rankings welcomes in Vasek Pospisil from Canada in position 100 for his doubles win and singles semifinal placement.

7th seed Jerome Inzerillo from France and 5th seed Tanya Rykova from Bulgaria come through to seize victory at the Raquette D'Or in Morocco, a grade 2 event that had a draw full of heavy hitters. Tanya is welcomed into the top 100 rankings at number 72 while Jerome took a big jump going from 99th to 65th place. Boy's finalist Axel Michon from France also shook up the rankings going into 60th position from 80th. Singles Semifinalist Takanyi Garanganga from Zimbabwe increased his ranking from 90 to 74th.

In preparation for Wimbledon the US held their grade 3 International Grass Court Championships. 2nd seed Gabriela Paz of Venezuela swept the girl's titles while Bradley Klahn of the US took home the boys singles crown. Bradley is back in the top hundred at position 86 coming in from 106, meantime Gabriela, who has dabbled in the pros winning a 10k in Texas in May, rose to 76 from 89. Great Britain's Tara Moore broke into the the top 100 at the 98th ranking position with her singles semifinals result.

Also a worthy mention, playing in the pro's Asia Muhammad of the USA established herself as a winner by taking the Houston Texas 10k last month and also reached the semi's in the El Paso 10k.

Christopher Diaz Figueroa from Guatemala and Paola Calderon of Peru were the champions of the XVI Copa Mundo Maya, a grade 4 held in Guatemala this past week.

Sergey Dulin of Uzbekistan and Tatiana Ignatchenko of Kazakhstan, both seeded 4th seeds in the boy's and girl's, dominated at Kyrgyzstan. It was the first singles ITF junior title for both players.

2007 Movers & Shakers: