ITF

ITFWORLD WINTER 2015 17 www.itftennis.com T AYLOR FRITZ is the first American boy to be named ITF Junior World Champion since Donald Young in 2005. The 18-year-old reached two Grand Slam junior singles finals in 2015, winning the US Open, and after taking over the No. 1 ranking in June he held on to the top spot for the rest of the season. The son of former tennis pros Kathy May and Guy Fritz — see feature on page 36 — Fritz was a quarterfinalist at the Australian Open, and won his first title of the year in his native California, lifting the trophy at the Easter Bowl. Fritz reached his first Grand Slam singles final at Roland Garros, where he lost in three sets, 76 26 62, to compatriot Tommy Paul in the first-ever Roland Garros decider to feature two American boys. He went on to be a semifinalist at Wimbledon, losing to eventual champion and another fellow US player, Reilly Opelka. Fritz's crowning moment arrived fittingly on home soil at Flushing Meadows, where he breezed to the US Open final without losing a set, and took his vengeance on Paul in a rematch of their Paris encounter, winning 62 67 62 to lift the trophy in his last tournament on the ITF Junior Circuit. Having finished 2014 at No. 6 in the rankings, Fritz also competed at the inaugural ITF Junior Masters in Chengdu, China in April and was runner-up there, losing a tight final to his predecessor as ITF Junior World Champion, Russia's Andrey Rublev. D ALMA GALFI is the first Hungarian player ever to receive the ITF World Champion honour across any category. In a competitive girls' season on the ITF Junior Circuit where the Grand Slam singles trophies were shared between four different players, the 17-year-old won the US Open and secured the year-end No. 1 ranking in the very last tournament of the year. Galfi started 2015 well, reaching her first Grand Slam singles semifinal at the Australian Open before losing to Katie Swan. She had a disappointing second round loss at Roland Garros, but bounced back on the grass to win the Grade 1 title at Roehampton, defeating close rival Marketa Vondrousova in the final. She lost early in singles at Wimbledon, but with compatriot Fanni Stollar won her first junior Grand Slam doubles title at the All England Club, the pair defeating Belarus's Vera Lapko and Slovakia's Tereza Mihalikova 63 62 in the final. With that experience under her belt, Galfi survived several close singles matches in New York and advanced to the US Open final, where she defeated Sofia Kenin in front of her home crowd 75 64. With the Grand Slam trophy came the No. 1 ranking, but with three weeks of the season left to go, the Hungarian dropped down to No. 3. She reclaimed the top spot by reaching the semis at the Orange Bowl, edging back in front of Vondrousova and Kenin. Coached by former Hungarian player Andrea Temesvari, Galfi reached three further doubles finals in 2015 with Swan, Stollar and Mihalikova and made her Fed Cup by BNP Paribas debut at home in Hungary. See also feature on page 37.

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