This year’s Kungens Kanna & Drottningens Pris qualification tournament is over. As a bit of a surprise, not all qualifying places were taken, a shame due to the calibre of this event on home soil. Our Finnish neighbours, however, fought well and this resulted in success, two boys and two girls went through to the main draw.
– It’s a shame that Sweden’s tournament players choose to go on holiday when the world’s elite show up at their front door, says Tournament Director Joe Beaton. At the same time, this may be a reflection of how they are doing in international tennis, Joe Beaton, continues.
Out of 22 Swedish qualifiers, Marco Garofalo from Sundsvall TK managed to make his way to the main draw. In the qualifying final, he defeated Lazik from Austria in a hurry. Austria also has a strong team with eight players settling in at the Royal Tennis Hall.
New to this year’s event is an expansion of the main draw from 48 to 64 players, for both the boys and girls tournament, filling up the hall on the first couple of days, with 12 courts in action. In total, 32 countries are represented in this year’s tournament.
This year’s event also offers a powerful starting field. The Drottningens Pris includes the two highest ranked players, Diana Shnaider and Erika Andreeva, from Russia and in Kungens Kanna, we find players ranked 2 and 3, Miki Polijak, Croatia and Constantin Koshis, Cyprus.
– It feels wrong to talk about favourites, in this under 14-year event, but of course we have our eyes on the best players. It’s important also not to overlook other players such as Czech Linda Fruhvirtova who recently won the team-EM gold with her teammates. She also won the double in Tarbes, Les Petits As, concludes Joe Beaton.
No less than 25 Swedish juniors get the chance to measure their tennis against the world elite at home. It will be exciting to see if they can build on last year’s success.