Ksenia Efremova, the 13-year-old from Russia, has won the Masters Tennis Europe in the under-14 category on Friday in Monte-Carlo.
Seeded No 1 and ranked No 2 on the circuit, Efremova, who trains at the Mouratoglou Academy in France, overcame a late second set surge from her opponent Sona Depesova, of Slovakia. Efremova led 6-4, 5-1 before Depesova came back to win three games in a row.
The Russian was able to close out the win in straight sets though, winning 6-4, 6-4. Earlier in the tournament, Efremova had beaten Belarusian-born Yuliya Perapekhina (6-3, 6-1) and Slovakia’s Kali Supova (No 4) (6-2, 6-1)
Depesova had reached the final by upseting the No 2 seed and her compatriot Mia Pohankova (6-4, 6-2) in Thursday’s semifinals.
Sixth u-14 title, 10th of the season
This is Ksenia Efremova’s sixth title this season on the U14 Tennis Europe circuit, even though she is still only 13. She has won 42 out of 48 matches in this age category.
Efremova has also won four titles on the ITF Junior Tour, including back-to-back titles in Casablanca and Rabat (Grade 4) ahead of the Masters Tennis Europe. She is currently ranked 370th in the ITF world junior rankings.
Coached by Kevin Boumiil, who trained Chinese player Zheng Qinwen until her professional debut, Efremova is supported by the ChampSeed Foundation created by Patrick Mouratoglou (co-founder of Tennis Majors) to enable talented young people to pursue their dreams.
The top-ranked player in the Tennis Europe rankings in 2022, Alena Kovackova, (who has 45 wins in 46 matches), did not participate in the competition, where she was a semifinalist in 2021, instead focusing on competing in the under-16 category.