Banerjee joins list of American Junior Grand Slam champions
The final words uttered by newly-crowned Wimbledon boys’ champion Samir Banerjee in his post-match press conference were: “I feel like whenever I come in with lower expectations I do better, so I’ll probably set the bar low and see what happens”.
He was discussing his prospects at an upcoming tournament but in actual fact this statement and indeed his laidback delivery of it epitomised his entire week: cool, calm and collected – until he had a couple of match-points today that is.
Banerjee, who entered the Junior Championships at Wimbledon ranked No. 19 in the boys’ rankings, was not among the favourites to lift silverware this week, not even close, and his unseeded status paid testament to that.
But he has been the picture of composure from the word go. He was exactly the same as he took to Court No. 1 and throughout his all-American showdown with Victor Lilov. By the end of proceedings, following a 7-5 6-3 triumph, he had announced himself to the watching world.
“I don’t think it has sunk in yet,” said Banerjee. “I am really happy and relieved for the most part. At 5-2 in the second set, I lost two match points on his serve and then on my first match point on my serve I double faulted.
“The nerves were definitely getting to me, but on the last match point I just said to myself, ‘I want to make him play and earn this point’ and that’s when he made an error. It’s a great feeling to have won a Junior Grand Slam.
“I’m really proud of how I’ve competed, especially after Roehampton [where he lost in the second round] and I started overthinking. I was like, ‘how am I going to do at Wimbledon?’, ‘am I ready to play on grass?’.
“I’m proud of how I competed and got out of some tough matches. My competitiveness and drive to win really helped me out in those moments.”
The 17-year-old, who has Indian parents, joins a prestigious list of players to have won a Junior Grand Slam while representing the United States, with Taylor Fritz, Coco Gauff, Sebastian Korda, Reilly Opelka and Tommy Paul all topping podiums in recent years.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “Just knowing that past champions have gone on to do such good things on the pro tour, it motivates me to go pro, although college [Columbia] is still in the picture. But this was a really big step and showed me I can compete and win at this level.”
Lilov, while hugely disappointed, was magnanimous in defeat and accepted that, on the day, Banerjee was a worthy winner and superior in most, if not all, departments.
“I’ll have to watch the match over to see what I did wrong and what I could have done better but today he pretty much did everything better than me,” said the 17-year-old, who is ranked No. 31 in the boys’ rankings.
“He served better, he returned a bit better and he had control of most of the match. If I had played smarter, perhaps I could have found a way to make it tighter, but he had all the answers today.”
Like Banerjee, Lilov was not expecting to reach the business end of the boys’ draw and revealed they had shared a joke about their presence in the final in the players’ cafeteria following their semi-final wins.
He insists he will reflect fondly on the week, but will not be reading too much into missing the chance to add a Junior Grand Slam title to his career CV, preferring instead to adopt a more philosophical outlook to defeat.
“I’ll look back and be very happy,” said Lilov, who was born in Canada to Bulgarian parents. “I beat three guys who were top 7 in the boys’ rankings [Juncheng Shang, Arhtur Fils and Jack Pinnington Jones] so it was a good week and hopefully it is going to turn my year around.
“Before the tournament, I definitely wasn’t expecting this. To have been here to the end, when the locker room is empty, is awesome and just to keep coming back every day was amazing.
“This is a big tournament, but a tournament is a tournament. A lot of juniors who did well here or in juniors generally went on to be good pros, but a lot didn’t. Equally, some who didn’t do well in juniors went on to become top pros.
“I don’t think this tournament is going to determine my career path. It can help boost it, but it’s up to me now to improve and we’ll see in the years ahead who develops their game the most.”
In the boys' doubles final, meanwhile, Lithuania's Edas Butvilas and Alejandro Manzanera Pertusa of Spain claimed silverware after defeating Abedallah Shelbayh of Jordan and Daniel Rincon, also of Spain, 6-3 6-4.