Earlier this summer, Justin To was a member of the ATF/ITF 14U Team that went on a six-week European Tour involving five ETA-sanctioned tournaments spread across France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. Other notables that took part in some of these events include Jason Kubler of Australia and Europe's under-14 number one, Anton Volkov of Russia.
[P h o t o G a l l e r y]
The way Justin got invited by the ITF to such a touring team was because of his semifinal showings in both the first and second week tournaments at the ITF 14U Asian Championships – Group I earlier this year, since the Top-6 place-getters were all automatically extended an invitation.
Other local representatives who were also on the HKTA-organized trip to Jakarta back in April include Kelvin Lam, Vincent Yau, Katherine Ip, Leung Lok Sze, and Shene Pui Yee.
When asked what he gained from this trip, Justin said, "Firstly, I was very proud to be a member of the ITF Asian team…that really meant a lot to me. It was also one of my goals since the beginning of the year. There I learned a lot about the importance of friendship and had an opportunity to not only be with my team mates from Asia, but also to meet other members of the COSAT South American and the Europe ITF teams."
"On court, I learned the importance of the pre-hitting exercises that you must do, also the stretching and cooling down, things that I could never be bothered to do before I went on this trip. I also learned that most of the time, the game is played in your mind…that if you don't have confidence in your shots, the match can slip away very quickly."
"Overall, I had a great time and a great experience for me personally, and I miss all my teammates on the Asian team!"
The circuit, which forms part of the Tennis Europe 14 & Under Junior Tour, offers a string of top class events so that young players from around the world could gauge their skills against the best young players from Europe. Members of the ITF Touring Teams from South Africa, East Europe, Asia, and Africa & Central America/Caribbean had all been top performers in designated ITF regional events during the past twelve months (ITF Touring Teams explained).
Prior to the first tournament is the traditional three-day training camp, which took place at the Stade de la Marche Club. It was the perfect opportunity for coaches and players from all the different continents to get acquainted before they do battle on court for the following five weeks. Needless to say, it was the chance to get acclimatized to the slow red clay of Europe, as there are no such courts of that specification in Hong Kong at the moment.
The ITF/Tennis Europe Development Officer, Hrvoje Zmajic, who attended the training camp, commented, "For over 15 years, promising young players from developing tennis nations get the chance to compete with the best players of the same age from around the world…it's a very special, unique atmosphere."
See The ITF Development Programme.
The tour, a mix of Category 1 and 2 ETA-sanctioned tournaments, went as follows:
Dates Tournaments
Jul 9-14 BNP Paribas Cup, France (www.stade-francais-tennis.com)
Jul 16-21 Windmill Cup, Netherlands (www.windmillcup.com)
Jul 23-28 Le 13/14 des Hauts-de-Seine, France (www.ligue.fft.fr/hds)
Jul 30-Aug 4 Rheinenergie Cup, Germany (www.rheinenergie-tennis-cup.de)
Aug 6-11 Lapperre Young Champions Cup, Belgium (www.excelsiortc.be/ycc)
Members on the ITF Asian 14U Team to Europe were:
Jung Ki-Su (KOR), Rohit Bisht (IND), Cao Guan-Yu (CHN), Zhang Yao-Zhong (CHN), Warit Sornbutnark (THA), Justin To (HKG), Ashwarya Agrawal (IND), Cynthia Melita (INA), Grace Sari Ysidora (INA), Luksika Kumkhum (THA), Napatsakorn Sankaew (THA), and Park Ji-Yun (KOR).
Unfortunately for Justin, he picked up an ill-timed elbow injury during his doubles match in the opening tournament in Paris against the No. 1 seeds, and had to sit out three of the singles for his next four tournaments. He did, however, reach two quarterfinals in doubles, with one of them coming against Australian number one, Jason Kubler, in Cologne where he and Korean No. 1, Jung Ki-Su, played a solid first set before falling, 6-4, 6-0, to the Aussie and his fellow teammate, Mark Richards, who went on to take the title.
Kubler, considered by some as one of the best under-14 players in the world, would go on to lead his team to the final of the World Junior Tennis competition against host nation, the Czech Republic. As it turned out, the Queenslander went undefeated in all his matches to secure, surprisingly, Australia's maiden win at this event.
Australia, as a matter of fact, had never reached the finals of the World Junior Tennis Competition before this year.
See Jason Kubler & Marieta Vagnerova's Blog from the WJT Finals.
By the time the final tournament came around – the Lapperre Young Champions Cup in Belgium – Justin's elbow had gotten markedly better but the luck of the draw had him pitted against No. 3 seed and eventual winner, Alberto Cammarata, of Italy. In the doubles, Justin and Thailand's Warit Sornbutnark defeated Belgium's Maxime Alders and Russia's Alex Kokorev, 0-6, 6-3, 6-1, before falling to British sixth seeds, Liam Broady and Mike Watkins, in the round of eight in straight sets.
Off the court, Justin was picked repeatedly as the unofficial spokesperson for the China International Youth Tennis Open – Beijing 2007 because of his prowess in English, much to the disappointment of his teammates from China, Cao Guan-Yu and Zhang Yao-Zhong, who missed out on a photo-op with Justine Henin whilst in Belgium.
For the fifth consecutive year, the BNP Paribas Cup in Paris was held in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The cooperation between Stade Français and UNESCO is to promote intercultural understanding while enhancing learning opportunities through sport at the same time.
Selected Results (ITF/ATF Team only)
BNP Paribas Cup
Paris, France
BOYS
Zhang Yao-Zhong/Cao Guan-Yu (CHN) – Doubles Finalist
Jung Ki-Su (KOR) – Consolation Champion
GIRLS
Luksika Kumkhum (THA) – Consolation Champion
Windmill Cup Carl Gantois
Leeuwarden, Netherlands
BOYS
Jung Ki-Su (KOR) – Finalist
GIRLS
Luksika Kumkhum (THA) – Consolation Champion
Grace Ysidora (INA) – Consolation Runner-up
Le 13/14 des Hauts-de-Seine
Rueil-Malmaison, France
BOYS
Zhang Yao-Zhong (CHN) – Finalist
Rohit Bisht (IND) – Consolation Runner-up
GIRLS
Luksika KumKhum (THA) – Champion
Cynthia Melita (INA) – Consolation Runner-up
Grace Ysidora/Park Ji-Yun (INA/KOR) – Doubles Champion
30 Rheinenergie Cup
Cologne, Germany
GIRLS
Luksika Kumkhum (THA) – Finalist
Cynthia Melita/Grace Ysidora (INA) – Doubles Champion
Lapperre Young Champions Cup
Hasselt, Belgium
GIRLS
Park Ji-Yun (KOR) – Doubles Finalist