A winner in Kungens Kanna from Qatar after 118 years! On Saturday, the finals of this year’s Kungens Kanna & Drottningens Pris were played out. Sweden’s prestigious junior tournament for the world’s best U14 players. For the first time in the competitions 118-year history, a player from Qatar was the winner.
It was not the exciting match what we had hoped for between Rashed Nawaf from Qatar and Yaroslav Demin from Russia. The Russian put all his energy on semifinals the day before, when he conquered the Romanian Coman after a brutal fight. In the final, he was for sure not himself and Nawaf was able to take the victory 6-1, 6-0.
The more entertaining and fun match was the girls’ final in the prestigious Drottningens Pris. Anastasiia Gureva from Russia started the strongest, but the Czech player Brenda Fruhvirtova played well. Her outstanding ability to change the pace to her advantage and always get the ball back slowly broke down the tournament favourite. Gureva took the first set with a tiebreak, but Fruhvirtova held her focus, and eventually took the match, the final score being 6-7, 6-4, 6-3. Shortly after this, she held the same trophy her sister held precisely one year before. Brenda Fruhvirtova is two years younger than most in the tournament, and we wonder if anyone else has won a CAT-1 U14 at this age, her 12 birthday is in one month.
The Swedish Tennis Federations’ chairman Thomas Wallén was in the Royal Tennis Club today, he thanked everyone involved and help with handing over the Royal family’s beautiful trophies.
– You play an impressive game despite your young ages, and I am sure that in a few years I will sit at home on my sofa and see you on the ATP and WTA Tour, said Thomas Wallén at the prize ceremony.
On the boys’ side receiving the Peter Wallenberg’s Honorary Prize Oliver Byskata (Finland) with partner Oliver Ojakaar (Estonia), defeated the all-French duo Gabriel Debru / Leo Cohen Bacrie 7-6, 3-6, 10-8.
In the girls’ doubles, Anastasiia Gureva got her revenge when she, with Belarus player Hanna Tsitavets, defeated the Swiss player Karolina Kozakova / Celine Naef 6-4, 7-6.