ITF

"It gives me immense confidence,'' Draper said of his breakout Wimbledon week. "It feels surreal, still, I'm still taking it in, but it's been an unbelievable week and it's going to give me a lot of inspiration and motivation.'' The USA has been enjoying a recent renaissance in the girls' draw of Grand Slam competition, including an all- American three-set final at Roland Garros won by 14-year- old prodigy Cori Gauff. Runner-up Caty McNally shared the doubles title with Iga Swiatek, the 17-year-old from Poland from whom much more would soon be heard. Like Tseng, clay is Swiatek's favourite surface, but the idea of grass was, well, starting to grow on her as an impressive week unfolded. The only set the powerful baseliner lost in six rounds was her first, against world No. 1 Whitney Osuigwe; while her next toughest test came in the semi against No. 4 Xinyu Wang. Her final opponent was unexpected: qualifier Leonie Kung. The Swiss had beaten four players in the top 15 to get there, while also conceding just a single set, having toiled through three matches at Roehampton to earn her debut place in a junior Grand Slam main draw. "I felt tired, mentally and physically, and my opponent played really, really well,'' said Kung, also 17, and the first qualifier to reach a Wimbledon girls' final since Russian Anna Chakvetadze in 2003. "It's amazing to have been here and to have made it in the finals. I never thought I would achieve this.'' Swiatek's was a commanding performance, nevertheless. The 64 62 victory featured eight aces among 33 winners to just 13 unforced errors from the fourth Polish winner of the Wimbledon girls' title – including most notably, future senior runner-up Agnisezka Radwanska in 2005. Having made a successful return from seven months sidelined after ankle surgery, Swiatek has already achieved some promising results at Futures level and made her Polish Fed Cup by BNP Paribas debut. Happily, too, the former non-believer has had to admit that she really can play on grass. "Yes, right now I'm sure,'' she smiled afterwards. Onwards and upwards, though, with Wimbledon her last junior Grand Slam of eight since 2016. "I had a long time to play juniors. Now we had to take another step,'' she said. "I want to build a better WTA ranking and to play senior tournaments. I hope I will do well next year in Wimbledon if I get a wild card to ladies singles. I can't wait.'' Asia's success at the All England Club extended to the girls' doubles victory by the top-seeded Wangs, Xinyu and Xiyu, over McNally and Osuigwe. The more surprising result came in the boys' draw, where Turkey's Yanki Erel and Otto Virtanen of Finland defeated three top-eight pairs, including Meija and Ondrej Styler in the final. ■ Swiatek returned eight aces among 33 winners against Leonie Kung, below, in the Wimbledon final Xiyu Wang and Xinyu Wang of China celebrating their Wimbledon success "I hope I will do well next year in Wimbledon if I get a wild card to ladies singles. I can't wait." I G A S W I A T E K ITFWorld // SUMMER 2018 37

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