Costoulas closes in on No. 1 spot as Ghibaudo seals Pretoria A grade
Belgium’s Sofia Costoulas and Antoine Ghibaudo of France continued their impressive campaigns by topping the podium and lifting silverware at the calendar’s latest Grade A tournament in Pretoria, South Africa.
Costoulas has been in blistering form this season and success in Pretoria represented her fifth junior title of 2022 and her second at Grade A level having also conquered all before her at Offenbach in May.
Her latest triumph propelled the 17-year-old to No. 2 in the junior world rankings as she closes in on top spot, which is currently held by Croatia’s Petra Marcinko, who was named an ITF World Champion in 2021.
While she has contested professional events in the meantime – and indeed reached the final at W25 Gurugram in June – Costoulas’s results at junior level since winning Offenbach have stuttered slightly. Her post-match comments on social media suggested as much.
After winning 29 of the 31 junior matches she played this year, Costoulas suffered a surprise first-round exit at the Roland Garros Junior Championships in June before succumbing in her opening match at JB1 Klosters.
“I believe I can say that I had a good week at the office,” said Costoulas, who also teamed up with Hungary’s Luca Udvardy to claim the girls’ doubles title in Pretoria. “I am very happy with these two titles and very happy to be back on track.”
While victory was sealed with a straight-sets win over Turkey’s Melisa Ercan, on three occasions – against USA’s Martina Marica, Aruzhan Sagandikova of Kazakhstan and Great Britain’s Ella McDonald – Costoulas recovered from a set down. She did so with distinction.
For Ghibaudo, meanwhile, this was his third junior title of the year, but his first at Grade A – the highest classification – level, with his previous wins coming at J3 Cakovec and more recently at J2 Castricum in July.
The 17-year-old was in dominant form throughout proceedings and prevailed in all five of his matches, including the final against home favourite Devin Badenhorst of South Africa, in straight sets.
Victory saw Ghibaudo rise to No. 20 in the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Rankings – a jump of 38 places from his previous slot of No. 58 – while he is now the second-highest ranked Frenchman after Gabriel Debru, who is at No. 2.
Amazing week in South Africa 🇿🇦 Winner JA singles and doubles @judemois @ITFTennis 🏆🎾 🔜 Now, time for some vacations. Guess where? 🚤🏖 pic.twitter.com/cXf0mij5u6
— Antoine Ghibaudo (@A_Ghibaudo) August 14, 2022
“It means a lot for me to win this tournament because in the ITF, it’s one of the biggest tournaments, so I’m proud to have won,” said Ghibaudo, who was a member of the France team which finished runners-up at the 2021 Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Finals.
“I’m also very happy to take revenge on Devin because he beat me two weeks ago. This was another close match, but I think I managed it better than him this time.”