Malta Independent

Helene Pellicano is European junior champion

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Helene Pellicano has once again etched her country into the record books, this time by becoming the first Maltese player ever to win the under 14 European Junior Tennis Championsh­ips.

Helene, who trains at the Brett & Lavazza Tennis Academy in Italy was supported by her mother and father Elaine and Robert along with her coach Fabio Lavazza at the event held in Czechoslov­akia.

The final match in Pilsen was relatively straightfo­rward; after a hard-fought first set, Helene, the top seed won eight of the last nine games to seal a 6-4 6-1 win over Czech fourth seed Denisa Hin dova, a small measure of revenge for defeat with fellow Maltese player Francesca Curmi at the hands of the Czech in the doubles quarterfin­als earlier in the week.

The win was a fourth straight sets victory of the week for Pellicano, whose only struggle came in a marathon semi-final against Croatia’s Noa Krznaric, in which she was forced to battle back from the brink of defeat before securing a 2-6 7-6(4) 6-4 win.

Last October, Pellicano became the first player from her country ever to win a Tennis Europe Junior Masters title, and earlier this year became the first to reach the Tennis Europe Junior Tour’s Number 1 ranking, a position she will regain when the rankings are updated next Tuesday.

Dr. David Farrugia Sacco, President of the Malta Tennis Federation congratula­ted Helene Pellicano for this achievemen­t, which is a first in Maltese tennis history. He stated that Helene is Malta’s strongest ever junior player who has already obtained the most prestigiou­s results in winning the Junior Masters Event in 2015 and the European Championsh­ip this year. He concluded by saying that Helene’s achievemen­ts will help other local players in building up confidence in themselves and furthering their game by competing abroad.

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