Pritchard victorious at Gallipoli Youth Cup

Tennis Australia | 29 April 2013

New South Wales’ Mitchell Pritchard (Bomaderry, NSW) on Sunday won the boys’ title at the Gallipoli Youth Cup, an ITF Junior Grade 4 tournament played at the clay courts at the National Tennis Centre.

Top seeded Pritchard defeated qualifier and doubles partner Aleksandar Vukic (Epping, NSW) to win his second ITF junior title of his career.

Vukic looked to continue his seven match winning streak winning the first set before Pritchard, the world No.227 junior, clawed back to take honours, 4-6 6-2 6-2.

Pritchard looked strong all week only dropping two out of twelve sets for the week.

Vukic also excelled on the clay at Melbourne Park, defeating the No.2 seed and 2013 Victorian Clay Court champion Daniel Guccione (Bundoora, Vic) before out-powering No.4 seed Olly Sadler (NZL) in the semifinals.

The girls’ title was won by top seed Ipek Soylu. The world No.16 ranked Turkish player defeated Australia’s No. 129 player Seone Mendez (Homebush, NSW), 6-1 6-4, to win her third ITF junior title for 2013.

It was a gallant effort for Mendez, who just two weeks ago helped Australia qualify for the under 14s World Junior Tennis Finals in August at the Asia/Oceania qualifying event in Kuching, Malaysia.

Soylu made it two from two when she paired up with teammate Muge Topsel to win the girls’ doubles title over Anja Dokic and Zoe Hives (Ballarat, Vic), 6-2 6-4.

The boys’ doubles title was won by Yuya Ito from Japan and Kurtis Wilson from South Australia over Pritchard and Vukic, 6-4 6-4.

In its sixth year, the tournament gives rising stars from Australia and around the world the opportunity to commemorate the fallen soldiers at Gallipoli. This year competitors from Istanbul, Turkey competed in the event.

Throughout the tournament hundreds of Year 6 students from various schools around Victoria participated in a range of tennis activities and education programs as part of the School Commemoration Program in association with the Victorian RSL.