Petits As

Les Petits As (English: Small champions) is a premier junior tennis tournament for players aged 12–14. It is held in Tarbes, France. It is often considered to be the European equivalent of the Orange Bowl in Florida, United States due to the high number of international players that it attracts.

The event has seen a number of its champions go on to become slam winners, including Rafael Nadal, Michael Chang, Martina Hingis, and Kim Clijsters. Due to the relatively restrictive age range, few players have won the title more than once, although Hingis and Timea Bacsinszky have both done so. Most recently, upcoming Spanish player Carlos Boluda became the first boy to do so.

The tournament is played on indoor Green Set (hard) courts. Roughly 7,000 players enter the pre-qualifying tournaments held across France, with that number being narrowed down to 350 for the final qualifying stage, and 64 for the final tournament.[1] The event is regulated by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and has businesses such as Head, Eurosport, Coca-Cola, and Peugeot amongst its portfolio of partners.[2]

Contents

Results

Boys' singles

Year Champion Runner-up Score
1983 Jean-Baptiste Bolle Jean-Manuel Naves
1984 Frédéric Fontang Marek Miskolci[3]
1985 Richard Krajicek Philippe Leblanc
1986 Michael Chang Johan Alvenn
1987 Reinhard Wawra David Klein
1988 Brian Dunn Julian Knowle
1989 Tommy Shimada Gonzalo Corrales
1990 Maxime Boye Magnus Norman
1991 Răzvan Sabău Juan Antonio Saiz
1992 Olivier Mutis Björn Rehnquist
1993 Miha Gregorc Dymitry Caradima
1994 Juan-Carlos Ferrero Fernando González
1995 Olivier Rochus Gasper Martinjak
1996 Paul-Henri Mathieu Todor Enev
1997 Julien Maigret Carlos Cuadrado
1998 Matthew Smith Mario Ančić
1999 Richard Gasquet Brian Baker
2000 Rafael Nadal Julien Gely
2001 Alexandre Krasnoroutski Andy Murray
2002 Dylan Arnould Robin Roshardt
2003 Donald Young Leo Rosenberg
2004 Andrew Thomas Vladimir Ignatic
2005 Chase Buchanan Lazare Kukhalashvili 6–4, 4–6, 6–4[4]
2006 Carlos Boluda Sebastian Lavie 7–6, 6–3
2007 Carlos Boluda Christian Harrison 6–2, 6–2
2008 Edward Nguyen Liam Broady 6–4, 7–5
2009 Nikola Milojevic Borna Coric 6–2, 6-3
2010 Quentin Halys Noah Rubin 6–1, 6-2

Girls' singles

Year Champion Runner-up Score
1983 Sybille Niox-Château Cécile Bourdaix
1984 Emmanuelle Derly Alexia Dechaume
1985 Sandrine Jacquet Hanika Narbe
1986 Laxima Poruri Gruben
1987 Kimberly Kessaris Ursula Priller
1988 Anke Huber Katherine Denn Samuel
1989 Nicole London Zedna Malková
1990 Heike Rusch Lindsay Davenport
1991 Martina Hingis Dally Randriantefy
1992 Martina Hingis Rita Kuti-Kis
1993 Stephanie Hallsell Rika Vidats
1994 Anna Kournikova Stephanie Kovacik
1995 Mirjana Lučić Justine Henin
1996 Jelena Pandžić Melissa Middleton
1997 Kim Clijsters Elena Bovina
1998 Lina Krasnoroutskaya Caroline Raba
1999 Bethanie Mattek Mateas Mezac
2000 Dinara Safina Lina Stančiūtė
2001 Vojislava Łukić Jarmila Gajdošová
2002 Timea Bacsinszky Alisa Kleybanova
2003 Timea Bacsinszky Ioana Raluca Olaru
2004 Yelena Kulikova Tamira Paszek
2005 Ksenia Pervak Gracia Radovanovic
2006 Gabriela Dabrowski Anna Arina Marenko 6–3, 6–4[5]
2007 Anna Orlik Nicole Gibbs 6–4, 6–1
2008 Daria Gavrilova Laura Robson 6–3, 6–3
2009 Yulia Putintseva Irina Khromacheva 6–4, 6–2
2010 Tsuji Kanami Indy De Vroome 4-6, 6-3, 6–4

Exhibitions

The tournament often features retired and/or active players making appearances in exhibition matches in the evening preceding the final day of play. It is common for upcoming and veteran French players to be present. In recent tournaments, players present have included:

Notable later meeting of Les Petites As competitors

In the 2011 Australian Open, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic met in the final. They had first played each other in Les Petits As in 2000 as 13-year-olds (born a week apart in May, 1987). Murray remembered winning the Petits As match "6-love, 6-1 maybe." Djokovic (3 seed in Australia 2011[6]), who had already eliminated Roger Federer (2 seed[6]) would "be just a bit tougher than that on Sunday,” averred Murray. Murray (5 seed) had just beaten David Ferrer (7 seed) in the semis at Melbourne Park. Ferrer earlier in the 2011 tournament had beaten Rafael Nadal, who was the overall winner of the 2000 Petits As[7] and the top seed in the 2011 Open.[8] In the event, in Australia 2011, Djokovic beat Murray in a hard-fought but convincing straight sets win, following the match with "a warm embrace at the net as if to say to his longtime friend and rival, until next time," as one commentator put it.[9]

References

  1. ^ "INTRODUCTION Logistic and Budget". http://www.lespetitsas.fr/presentation/index.php?tmpl=logistic.html&titleName=logistic. Retrieved 2008-03-04. 
  2. ^ "Partners". http://www.lespetitsas.fr/infos/index.php?tmpl=partners.html&titleName=partners. Retrieved 2008-03-04. 
  3. ^ Profile, atpworldtour.com. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
  4. ^ Milano, Sally (2005-12-19). "Buchanan Sweeps at Les Petits As; Muhammad, Augustine Win in Doubles". Juniors: 2005 Year in Review. United States Tennis Association. http://www.usta.com/news/fullstory.sps?inewsid=287295http://www.usta.com/news/fullstory.sps?inewsid=287295. Retrieved 2008-05-02. 
  5. ^ "Ontario Girls Win in Europe". Ontario Tennis. Ontario Tennis Association. 2006. http://www.tennisontario.com/pages/Emagazine.asp?id=2/2/2006. Retrieved 2008-05-02. 
  6. ^ a b Clarey, Christopher, "Djokovic in Top Form Ousting Federer", The New York Times, January 27, 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-28.
  7. ^ Clarey, Christopher, "Murray Beats Ferrer to Reach Final", The New York Times, January 28, 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-28.
  8. ^ australianopen.com, Official Site, Nadal v. Ferrer Match Statistics. Retrieved 2011-01-28.
  9. ^ Lin, Thomas, "Djokovic Wins Second Australian Open Title", The New York Times Straight Sets tennis blog, January 30, 2011, 6:36 am. Retrieved 2011-01-30.

External links