Issue link: http://itf.uberflip.com/i/315708
ITFWORLD SPRING 2014 31 www.itftennis.com R ussia's Elizaveta Kulichkova dominated the girls' event in Melbourne, dropping just one set en route to her first Grand Slam title with a 62 61 victory over unseeded Croatian Jana Fett in the final. The 17-year- old is only the third Russian to win the title and she completed the perfect week by partnering Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina to doubles glory. Top seed Zverev, fresh from being named 2013 ITF Junior World Champion, survived an early scare in round two to sign off his junior career with a fine 63 60 win over 15-year-old American Stefan Kozlov in the boys' final. Australia's Brad Mousley and Austria's Lucas Miedler won the doubles title. After a first week of the Australian Open when temperatures passed 40 degrees Celsius on four consecutive days for the first time in more than a century, the junior events began in far more pleasant conditions but the shocks came thick and fast. Top seed Varvara Flink arrived in Melbourne as the favourite, having won the Orange Bowl in December and taken the title in the warm-up event in Traralgon the week before the Australian Open junior event. Beaten in her six previous Grand Slam matches, Flink was hugely relieved when she won her first-round match but the joy did not last long as she was upended by American Olivia Hauger in the second round, leaving Serbia's No. 2 seed Ivana Jorovic a golden chance to win her first junior Slam. But once Jorovic had been beaten by China's Sun Ziyue in the quarterfinals, Melbourne was guaranteed a first-time champion and Kulichkova and Fett were the two stand-out performers throughout. In the final, which was played in front of a healthy crowd on Rod Laver Arena, the tall and elegant Kulichkova was too good for Fett, who ran out of steam after the best tournament of her junior career. The 17-year-old Kulichkova had already lifted her WTA ranking to No. 264 and set her sights on climbing even higher by the end of 2014. "Somewhere around top 100 at the end of this year would be good, would be perfect," she said. "But I don't hurry. I'll see how it goes. I'm happy about how it goes now, so just I'll continue my work and I'll see what happens." Fett said she had exceeded her expectations by reaching her first junior Grand Slam final. "At the start, I thought, the biggest thing that can happen is quarterfinals," she said. "Then I played semis and final and I was like: 'OK, I'm so happy now'. It's been a great week." Ten years after his brother, Mischa, made it to the quarterfinals, Alexander Zverev gave the family a trophy to savour as he justified top billing with a deserved victory. Once he had scrambled past Ryotero Matsumara of Japan in round two, Zverev never looked back but going into the final he was fearful of Kozlov, who had beaten him in the Orange Bowl and at Wimbledon. In the event, Kozlov was exhausted from his week's efforts and Zverev ran out a comfortable winner, the first German to take the title since Daniel Elser in 1997. "I have been waiting for a Grand Slam victory for a long time," the 16-year-old Zverev said. "I was in the finals in Paris and semis at the US Open but could never make it to a victory, but now I did. It means a lot." Kozlov turned his ankle early in the final and said some titanic battles on the way to the final had taken their toll. "It kind of all just fell on me today," he said. "I guess I'm a little tired. I played a lot of matches and only had one day off. I'm not fully developed yet but I'm obviously very happy with the week." Like Kulichkova, Zverev said he was now hoping to make some inroads on the professional circuit. "I don't think there is a big difference between us and maybe someone who's 100, 150 in the world," he said. "On a good day I think me and Stefan and some other guys can really play with them." Fifth seeds Mousley and Miedler saw off No. 3 seeds Quentin Halys and Johan Sebastien Tatlot of France 64 63 to win the boys' doubles, while Kulichkova and Kalinina beat Jorovic and Britain's Katie Boulter 64 62 in the girls' final. Kulichkova also won the doubles title with Anhelina Kalinina A tired Stefan Kozlov fell to Zverev in the fi nal Unseeded Jana Fett surpassed all expectations Boys' doubles winners Lucas Miedler and Brad Mousley, right, with fi nalists Quentin Halys and Johan Sebastien Tatlot