Vucic, Veselinovic Advance in States

Ilija Vucic advanced to the main draw of the $15,000 Futures event in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as a Lucky Loser despite going down 7-5, 7-6(7) to Ireland’s Conor Taylor in the final round of the qualifying competition.

Ilija, who defeated American Waylon Chin in three sets to reach the final round, will now meet another Irishman in James McGee, who also came through qualifying.

After his loss to Taylor, the teenager from Serbia acknowledged it was time to re-evaluate his priorities and now hopes to use that to his advantage. “From now on, tennis must be my priority whether or not it is a match day. It wasn't today and that's why I lost,” admitted Ilija. “I lost the working mentality for a while. The guy I lost against today did not have great technique but he was making a lot of balls which made me miss a lot of balls. But all in all I have a new chance as a lucky loser to get myself back into it and start working again. Now my priority is going to be my tennis.”

There was more drama to come for Ilija in the doubles, as he teamed up with current World Junior No. 1 Uladzimir Ignatik of Belarus to win a thrilling first round encounter against Henrique Cunha and Alexei Grigorov. The duo saved a number of match points in the Match Tie-break before going through 4-6, 7-6 18-16.

“This was an incredibly important match for Ilija on many levels,” said coach Antony Hampson. “I am very proud to say that he was by far the most outstanding player on the court. His moves, his decision making, his execution and the way he led the pair have earned him a much greater respect from his peers than he had before the match began. He carried them through this match and almost single handedly won the battle.”

Meanwhile, Ilija’s fellow Monte-Carlo Tennis Academy star Ana Veselinovic banished the memory of one of her most painful losses to reach the second round of the $25,000 Challenger in Augusta.

Ana, who saw a 5-0 third set lead slip against Canada’s Heidi El Tabakh in Hamilton in July, gained the perfect riposte despite a disastrous opening set to win 0-6, 6-3, 6-1. “At 4-0 up in the third set I started thinking about the match in Hamilton where I was in a  similar situation,” said Ana. “But this time I was more relaxed and thought about what should I do so that the same thing didn’t happen again. It was more a fight with myself than with her.”