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Vucic Pushes Top Junior Evans in
France
 Playing in the first round of the
Istres Junior International in
France against World No. 25 Dan
Evans was always going to be a
difficult task for Ilija Vucic, and
the teenage Serb showed once again
that despite going down in three
close sets, he is hot on the trail
of the world’s best juniors.
Ilija, who struggled to find his
first serve throughout the
encounter, fought back from a
disappointing first set before going
down 6-0, 5-7, 7-5 against the
Briton.
“I
couldn't find a first serve and
that's the big reason why I didn't
win this match,” said Ilija, who
came into the tournament ranked No.
131, more than a hundred places
below Evans. “I was playing quite
good, my ground strokes were all
right. I have to say that I was very
tough without my serve and I was so
close to winning this match.”
Evans, who won the Asuncion Bowl on
clay in Paraguay last month and
reached the final of the Czech
Junior International in January,
took full advantage of Ilija’s
service problems and raced through
the first set without dropping a
game.
However, Ilija held off more break
points at the start of the second
and then opened up a 4-1 lead.
Despite seeing his advantage slip
away with the scores back at 4-4,
Ilija eventually got the crucial
break in the 12th game to
level the match at one set all.
In the decider, Ilija came back from
4-1 down and broke again to level at
5-5, but once again it was his first
serve that continued to let him down
as he lost the next two games.
“We can definitely build on this,”
said MCTA Director of Coaching David
Sammel, who is with Ilija in France.
“He is up here with the best juniors
and unfortunately his first serve –
only around 20 percent today – let
him down badly. He broke Dan three
times in the third set but was
broken four times himself, so this
is something we can work on.”
Ilija continues his clay court tour
of France next week at the Open
International Juniors de Beaulieu
sur Mer 2007.
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