Australian Open Junior: Lorenzo Musetti and Clara Tauson are the champions
The 16-year-old Dane Clara Tauson, junior world no. 3 and one of the most promising youngsters in the world has won her fifth title in the last seven tournaments, defeating the Canadian Leylah Annie Fernandez 6-4, 6-3 in an hour and six minutes. Clara is the second Danish junior Grand Slam champion after Caroline Wozniacki and the first in Melbourne, entering the tournament as the favorite and winning 12 straight sets after an early setback against Anastasia Berezov to go all the way and claim her biggest junior title. Tauson served at 77% but she still got broken three times from four chances she offered to Fernandez, digging deep on the return to erase that deficit and prevail in straight sets.
The Canadian hit six double faults and she lost more than 40% of the points in her games, losing serve six times and spraying more than 20 unforced errors to finish with the runner-up trophy. Clara forced an error from her rival in the fifth game to score the first break, staying in front only for a few minutes as Leylah Annie broke back in the very next game after a terrible forehand drive-volley from the Dane. Tauson broke again in game seven after forcing another error from the Canadian and that was the turning point of the set, serving well in games eight and ten to secure the opener with a well-constructed attack at 5-4.
The Dane moved ahead in the third game of the second set as well after a double fault from Fernandez and her groundstrokes were too tough to handle for the 4th seed at that moment, scoring another break in game five to jump into a 4-1 lead. Fernandez broke at 15 in the following game to reduce the deficit but Clara was not to be denied, scoring the third consecutive break in game seven and serving for the title. Fernandez saved a match point to pull the break back although it wasn't to be for a left-hander in this match, losing serve once again in game nine after a forehand error to propel Clara over the finish line.
In the boys' final, the world no. 4 and the top seed Lorenzo Musetti saved a match point in a thrilling 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 win over the American Emilio Nava in two hours and seven minutes, stealing the match tie break 14-12 to become the first Italian winner in Melbourne! Musetti, who works at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy, lost the final at the US Open last September and he gave his best to emerge as the champion at Melbourne Park, coming from a set down and keeping his focus in that crazy match tie break to lift the trophy.
The Italian won just three points more than his rival and we saw only three breaks in the entire match, one from the American at 3-3 in the opening set following a deep return that Lorenzo failed to control. Standing on the verge of defeat, Musetti fends off three break points in the fifth game of the second set (two with winners) before he earned a break in the very next game to move 4-2 in front and close the set with another break in game eight after a poor forehand from Nava. They saved the best for the last set, with no break points before the match tie break that was to determine the champion, turning it into a thrilling contest with no margin for errors in the breaker.
Nava saved a match point at 8-9 with a smash winner and another one at 9-10 when Lorenzo hit a double fault. The Italian squandered the third match point in the 20th point and he had to save a match point at 11-12, blasting a service winner to level the score again before he crossed the finish line in the 26th point when Nava sprayed a huge forehand error.
Final results:
Boys' singles:
[1]Lorenzo Musetti (ITA) vs [13]Emilio Nava (USA) 4-6 6-2 7-6(14-12)
Gilrs' singles:
[1]Clara Tauson (DEN) vs [4]Leylah Annie Fernandez (CAN) 6-4 6-3
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2FYqyhT
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