CHENGDU, CHINA P.R.: The draw for the ITF Junior Masters took place in a busy city centre in Chengdu on Wednesday.
In the women’s draw, No. 2 seed Iryna Shymanovich was handed a tough first round encounter against Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko.
The Belarussian felt sure the match-up would be a close one but is looking to channel the success that she had on Chinese soil for the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing (where she won a silver medal in singles).
“It’s going to be a good match. I will try my best so we’re going to see what happens. We’ve played a few times and I think she leads 2-1, but we’ve played really close matches.”
With members of the public earning the right to draw out the names for the inaugural Junior Masters event, home favourite Xu Shilin was handed Spain’s Aliona Bolsova Zadoinov in the first round.
“I have been training very hard,” explained No. 1 seed Xu. “I like the support that I receive in China but I have never played Aliona before.”
The Chinese starlet was in fine form in Nanjing for the Youth Olympic Games in August last year and she will be hoping to replicate her performance there with another victory on home soil.
In the men’s draw top seed Andrey Rublev of Russia was drawn to play against USA’s Michael Mmoh in the first round on Friday.
Rublev, who is tied 1-1 in previous match-ups against Mmoh, said: “This is the Top 8 players so everybody is good. I’ll just prepare for every match and try my best.
“We’ve played a couple of times – every match is really tough. Some matches he won, some matches I’ve won so it’s going to be a good match.”
No. 2 seed Orlando Luz is scheduled to play against Korea, Republic’s Chung Yunseong in the first round. The winner of that match will play the victor of the clash between Spain’s Jaume Munar and USA’s Taylor Fritz.
Earlier in the day, the players took time out from their training to make the most of their time in Chengdu with a visit to the world-famous giant panda sanctuary.
Live coverage of the ITF Junior Masters will be available on the ITF Juniors website match centre: http://www.itftennis.com/juniors/tournaments/itf-junior-masters.aspx. The match centre will feature an interactive live blog, live scores, news articles, photographs and the latest results. Matches will also be streamed live on www.tennisjuniortv.com
Play will start at 13:00 local time (05:00 GMT) on Friday and Saturday and 10:30 local time (02:30 GMT) on Sunday.
The full draw is listed below:
Men’s Singles Draw
(1) Andrey Rublev (RUS) v Michael Mmoh (USA)
Duck Hee Lee (KOR) v Marcelo Zormann (BRA)
Jaume Munar (ESP) v Taylor Fritz (USA)
Chung Yunseong (KOR) v (2) Orlando Luz (BRA)
Women’s Singles Draw
(1) Xu Shilin (CHN) v Aliona Bolsova Zadoinov (ESP)
Marketa Vondrousova (CZE) v Jil Teichmann (SUI)
Elena Gabriela Ruse (ROU) v Kristina Schmiedlova (SVK)
Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) v (2) Iryna Shymanovich (BLR)
Read more at http://www.itftennis.com/news/202931.aspx#TvvFfg7UbMP4sHri.99