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W inning a junior Grand Slam title is a good enough achievement in itself; winning it in a cauldron of heat at Flushing Meadows is another altogether. In a week when temperatures regularly topped 90 degrees Celsius and when humidity saw several players quit through heat exhaustion, Omar Jasika and Marie Bouzkova showed the resilience, strength and calmness under pressure that will serve them well in the future. The lefthanded Jasika became the fourth Australian to win the boys' title at Flushing Meadows when he battled back to beat France's Quentin Halys 26 75 61 while Bouzkova outwitted and outgunned Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine 64 76 to become the first Czech to lift the girls' title. Following in the footsteps of Pat Cash, Mark Kratzmann and Bernard Tomic, Jasika is only the second boy in history to win both the US Open singles and doubles titles in the same year, having partnered Japan's Naoki Nakagawa to beat Rafael Matos and Joao Menezes of Brazil 63 76 the previous afternoon. But it was his triumph in the singles which took almost everyone by surprise in a tournament that had seemed destined to see the great American hope, Francis Tiafoe, win his first Grand Slam title. Tiafoe may still be 16 but he has been tipped for greatness by a nation starved of recent success on the men's side and he showed plenty of guts as he made his way to the semifinals, beating the No. 1 seed, Andrey Rublev, on the way there. The American stood on the verge of a place in the final when he had two match points against Halys but the French teenager held his nerve to set up a clash with Jasika, who had taken out the No. 3 seed Jared Donaldson earlier in the tournament and who advanced to the final when Germany's Jan Choinski quit trailing by a set and 4-1 in their semifinal. For an hour of the boys' final, there only seemed to be one winner as the more physically-blessed Halys led by a set and a break. Halys served for the title at 5-4 but Jasika would not be denied and he won 17 of the next 18 points and nine of the next ten games for victory. hot property As Omar Jasika and Marie Bouzkova continue their transition to the senior ranks, they will do so not only as US Open junior champions but with the knowledge that they can cope with the pressure and the heat of competition, says Simon Cambers. US OPEN JUNIORS Jil Teichmann and Ipek Soylu celebrate their doubles victory Quentin Halys made a strong start in the final Unseeded Marie Bouzkova was the first Czech girl to be crowned US Open junior champion