Eight young players have earned themselves a trip to Roland Garros after winning their respective categories in the Clark Francis Tennis Swiss Adidas Junior Masters Series Finals.
Cameron Francis, Coumba Ben, Jack Goddard, Angel McLeod, Miguel Nau, Lojaine Adel, Karan Manghnani and Samar Al Bakry will fly to Paris next month.
In Paris, the eight youngsters will go sight-seeing, watch the first day of the French Open quarter-finals seated in the Adidas VIP box before heading to Euro Disney.
The Series was founded by Clark Francis over 10 years ago and has since sent dozens of young players on this dream trip to Roland Garros.
In order to make it to the finals, players accumulate points throughout the season, which kicked off last September, with the top seeds in each category then slugging it out to make the trip to Paris.
Two of the eight winners this season – 12&Under Girls’ champion Angel McLeod and 14&Under Boys’ champion Miguel Nau – have won the Series on more than one occasion and have thus been on the trip before, while it will be the first time for the remaining six.
“Miguel is a veteran in Paris now,” joked tournament director Andres Gimeno – the son of 1972 French Open champion Andres Gimeno. “He has won his categories several times before and this will be his third trip with us to Paris.
“We are really very happy and satisfied with the season. We had more players than ever, more participation in all the categories. Also, the level of the players has increased.
“I’d like to believe we also have been offering better quality of service from our side to the players and the parents.”
Gimeno explained how the tournament has become more regional than local, with several players coming to Dubai from Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia throughout the season to take part in the weekly matches.
According to the Spaniard, there were several surprise winners this season.
“We have Cameron Francis, who won the 10&Under. I’m very, very happy for him because he wasn’t in the top-three in the rankings throughout the season. But in the last couple of months he trained really hard and stepped up [his game]; he really deserves it. That’s one of the surprises,” said Gimeno.
“Lojaine Adel, she has been training with me all year and she too did great, finally getting her ticket to Paris – that was huge for her.
“We have Samar Al Bakry from Oman. She was travelling to Dubai every weekend and now she has won the open junior category. The fact that she won shows that people from other countries can come and win [here].”
The winners will travel to Paris on June 3 and return on June 6.
