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December 2nd,
2006
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Semi Final Status at the Eddie
Herr International Championships
Ilija Vucic made it as far as
the semi finals before bowing
out of the Under 16’s singles in
the Eddie Herr International
Junior Tennis Championships. In
arguably one of the toughest
junior tournaments in the world
the 16 year old gave a clear
indication of his future
potential.
 In
the second round Ilija defeated
J. Sundling from the USA in a
thrilling three set encounter.
Despite losing the first set 3-6
Ilija bounced straight back in
the second and a closely fought
contest saw the match reach a
tiebreak. With superb net play
Ilija won the tiebreak 7-5. The
final set was similar to the
second in competitiveness and
again went down to the wire
culminating in a tiebreak and
again Ilija secured it 7-5.
Through to the quarter finals
the Serbian player faced
Alexandre Folie from Belgium.
Breaking Folie at 1-1, Ilija
continued to hold his serve and
won the first set 6-4. With
blustery conditions to contend
with in the second set Ilija had
difficulty taming Folie’s
powerful first serve, which was
followed by a second serve laden
with spin. Yet finally at 5 - 5
Ilija managed to break and
served the set out in confident
manner.
Ilija said, “This is my best
performance to date. Yesterday
was good and overall a tougher
match but I gave away some
opportunities which I did not do
today. Also the work I’ve done
on my forehand footwork is
helping me to stay aggressive”
 Into
the final four of the tournament
Ilija’s opponent was number two
seed Grigor Dimitrov from
Bulgaria. A slip of
concentration early on proved
critical as Ilija was unable to
recover and lost the first set
2-6. Despite going a break down
in the second the teenager
managed to hold on and force the
set into a tiebreak, eventually
winning it 7-5.
Unfortunately Ilija was unable
to transfer the momentum he had
in the tiebreak to the beginning
of the final set. Missing three
second serve returns in the
opening game, and then being
broken immediately by Dimitrov
Ilija gave his opponent the
confidence he had been lacking.
Although each game was tightly
contested Ilija was powerless to
get back into the match and
finally succumbed 1-6.
Ilija said, “I was pleased with
my composure and the fact that I
could make it a close match with
a good player even though I
wasn’t playing my best.”
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