Within hours of Shingo Kunieda and Yui Kamiji securing a Japanese double in Sunday’s men’s and women’s singles finals at the Australian Open, another potential Japanese star of the future emerged victorious in Tarbes, France as 13-year-old Tokito Oda joined Dutch 15-year-old Lizzy De Greef in winning the singles titles at the Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters.

The Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters, the premier annual international junior wheelchair tennis tournament for players aged 18 and under, takes place alongside the final four days of the prestigious Les Petits As Tennis Europe tournament for able-bodied juniors aged under 14 and under.

Former Les Petits As players who have graduated to the top of the sport at senior level include Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Garbine Muguruza and Simona Halep. Meanwhile, Kamiji, Diede de Groot, Jordanne Whiley, Gustavo Fernandez, Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett are among players who contested this year’s Australian Open wheelchair event and who are former Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters champions.

With 12 players from Australia, Brazil, Great Britain, Japan and the Netherlands lining up for this year’s Junior Masters, there was drama from the outset of the round-robin pool matches as defending boys’ singles champion and world No. 1 Niels Vink edged Oda 2-6 6-4 6-1, while in the other boys’ singles pool Oda’s countryman Tomoya Tachi narrowly lost out in two three-set matches against Britain’s Ben Bartram and Australia’s Riley Dumsday.

Meanwhile, the first day of competition also saw De Greef come through in three sets against compatriot Jinte Bos in the four-way girls’ singles round-robin, prevailing 7-6(1) 1-6 6-0.

While De Greef would go on and complete her three round-robin matches unbeaten, Bos dropped just five games in her remaining two matches to finish second in the pool stage of the event, meaning that both players would meet again in the final.

The Dutch success continued in the boys’ sinigles as 17-year-old Vink finished unbeaten at the top of Pool A, ahead of Oda, while 14-year-old Bartram booked his place in the semifinals after finishing Pool B unbeaten, ahead of Dumsday.

A 6-2 6-0 semifinal win for Vink over Dumsday and Oda’s 6-1, 6-2 win over Bartram set up another enticing contest between the two pool rivals for the Junior Masters title and it was a match that did not disappoint. However, it was Oda that made much the better start before Vink saved a string of match points on his way to taking the second set, only for Oda to dominate large portions of the decider as he sealed a 6-0 6-7(5) 6-2 victory.

“I was so happy to win. I feel very strange when I think I became the best junior of the year”, said Oda, who was awarded the wild card entry for the tournant, with entries based on the Cruyff Foundation Junior Wheelchair Tennis Rankings of 28 October 2019.

Following his success, Oda has moved up to No. 6 in this week’s Cruyff Foundation Junior Wheelchair Tennis Rankings.

“In the final, I was thinking of focusing on each shot, anyway. But when I took the match point, I felt something like pressure and was a bit impatient. But it was good that we ended up with an ace.”

For the second time in four days De Greef and Bos also went to three sets in the girls’ singles final and their title contest produced another engaging match, with De Greef battling back from 4-1 down in the final set to also secure her first Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters title 6-2 4-6 6-4.

The result means that de Greef and Bos have now moved to No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in this week’s Cruyff Foundation Junior  Wheelchair Tennis Rankings.

“I came here with the purpose of not finishing last and now I won, it feels great,” said De Greef, who arrived in Tarbes trailing Bos in their match head-to-head, but left with both players on five wins apiece.

“it was a moment where I thought, ‘I worked so hard the whole year to be here, just go for it’ and it worked out in the end, although Jinte had a great start in the beginning of the third set and I was struggling.”

The respective Japanese and Dutch success also translated into the boys’ and girls’ doubles, too.

A tense semifinal for Oda and Tachi saw them narrowly get the better of Brits Bartram and Dahnon Ward 5-7, 6-4 (10-7), but the Japanese duo managed to make it a straight sets victory in he final, beating Brazil’s Joaoa Lucas Takaki and Vink 6-3 6-4.

“This tournament taught me that I need to work much, not only on tennis skill but also mental aspects,” said Tachi. “The most impressive time for me was the semfinal doubles match against the British pair. I was very disappointed because I had just lost the chance to qualify in the singles (round-robin). But I encouraged myself with my partner Tokito, telling myself ‘Be confident’ in myself. Finally, it was very impressive that I was able to win with Tokito after beating our opponents 10-7 in the match tiebreak.”

Wheelchair tennis made its debut at Les Petits As back in 1983, when an exhibition match took place in Tarbes and the sport continued to be a regular fixture through to the mid-1990s, contested firstly by senior players and then by a mixture of senior and junior players.

Since 1998 the wheelchair tennis event in Tarbes has been reserved exclusively for juniors selected by the ITF. The ITF’s Junior Wheelchair Tennis Programme Partner the Johan Cruyff Foundation became the title sponsor of the event in 2004, since when it has been known as the Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters.

The 2020 edition of the Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters once again demonstrated that there is an extremely bright future for the sport’s younger players as they continue on a proven development and performance pathway through to senior level competition, which includes annual regional Cruyff Foundation Junior Wheelchair Tennis Camps.