Junior No.1s Jimenez Kasintseva, Mayot make winning return

 - Dan Imhoff

Australian Open junior champions pick up where they left off in Roland-Garros openers

Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva, Roland-Garros 2020, juniors©Cédric Lecocq / FFT

When a junior Grand Slam champion emerges from a tiny land-locked nation with no airport and better known for its ski resorts, it is fair to conclude it is a pretty big deal back home.

In February, Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva became the first junior Slam winner from Andorra – the tiny principality of just 77,000 people – six months shy of her 15th birthday.

Following her surprise Australian Open triumph, as the youngest player in the draw, the teenager declared a lot of chocolate was in order to celebrate.

“No, I didn’t actually,” Jimenez Kasintseva laughed. “Well I did eat a carrot cake in Australia instead, but that’s all.”

There is no avoiding the expectations second time around. Following the extended pandemic hiatus, the Andorran arrived in Paris as the world’s No.1 junior, eight months after that Melbourne Park breakthrough.

She began her campaign on Sunday with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over French wild card Shanice Roignot.

“Yeah it’s absolutely different,” Jimenez Kasintseva said. “For me it’s a bit more difficult this time because of my ranking and maybe because everything stopped.

“From Australia the quarantine started and things were left with me at No.1. The comeback was kind of difficult because I lost the rhythm and quarantine ended and I was still No.1 and I wasn’t playing my best… It was difficult for me to regain my game.”

Harold Mayot, Roland Garros 2020©Philippe Montigny / FFT

Four girls hold the honour of winning consecutive junior Grand Slams since 2000 and Jimenez Kasintseva stands to become just the fifth in Paris.

Achieving the feat more than eight months apart, however, would be unprecedented.

“I’m just going to fight here until the end, until the very last point and obviously I would love the back-to-back Grand Slam but it’s very close to impossible,” she said. “I just want to think about my next match and see what happens.”

Expectations will be even higher on Harold Mayot as the boys’ singles top seed from France.

The 18-year-old also landed his maiden junior Slam at this year’s Australian Open and opened his Roland-Garros junior campaign with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Portugal’s Bruno Oliveira on Sunday.

Harold Mayot, Arthur Cazaux, Roland Garros 2020©Nicolas Gouhier / FFT

Mayot had already contested two events at this year’s Roland-Garros. As a wild card, he fell to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in his main draw debut and alongside fellow junior Arthur Cazaux, went down to fourth seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo in the men’s doubles.

The pair of main draw matches proved invaluable.

“This is a good experience to play pros before the juniors," he said. "It’s going to help. It’s funny to play so many draws here. We have played pros main draw, doubles main draw, now juniors singles and doubles."

Like Jimenez Kasintseva, Mayot would become just the fifth player since 2000 to secure consecutive boys’ singles majors if he triumphed on home soil and he admitted there may well be a mental factor in his favour, having faced a junior No.1 and Grand Slam champion before.

“It changed a lot," Mayot said of his Australian Open win. "I think the player I played today [Oliveira], it changed a lot in their mind.

"I played against a junior Grand Slam champion in the past, [Jason] Tseng here two years ago and was tough to play because I knew he was a good player in front of me. I think it’s kind of different when you play against a Grand Slam champion so I think it’s going to help me a lot."