Young star hopes to keep ball rolling
Peliwo fresh off win at Wimbledon
It has been a crazy few days for Filip Peliwo. On Sunday, the 18-year-old from North Vancouver won the junior boys’ singles championship in the 11,000-seat Court One at Wimbledon in London, becoming the first ever Canadian male to win a junior Grand Slam title. Two days and more than 6,500 kilometres later, he landed in Saskatoon. Today he will compete in his first singles match since the historic win, at the 2012 International Tennis Federation Saskatoon Futures.
Less than a week after Wimbledon, Peliwo can already see that his life has changed completely.
“(It has changed) more than you know. People are sending me so many messages of support, and just congratulating me. All of the attention I’m getting from the media now, I don’t know, I’m trying to make sense of it,” Peliwo said Tuesday.
Wimbledon was his third consecutive junior grand slam final, but his first victory. He defeated Luke Saville of Australia 7-5, 6-4. Saville had beaten Peliwo in the Australian Open final earlier this year. The win put Peliwo into the No. 1 spot on the ITF junior world ranking, just ahead of Saville.
“It’s made just that much sweeter because I lost the previous two, and in Australia I also lost to Luke. It’s unbelievable. I can’t find any better words to describe it. I still can’t believe that I did it,” Peliwo said.
Past junior Grand Slam winners include Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick and many other top names from the tennis world.
The quick return to competition is a reminder for Peliwo not to dwell on any victory, no matter how big.
“It’s just another tournament in the life. You try to take it week by week. Whether it’s Court One on Wimbledon, or just a court here in Saskatoon, I’m going to try to do my best and win every match I can,” he said.
Interestingly, the Saskatoon Futures is in some ways more important to Peliwo’s career than Wimbledon. The U.S. Open this August will be his last tournament as a junior. After that his junior ranking won’t mean anything. From that point forward, it will be professional tournaments like the Futures that determine the path of his career.
“(Wimbledon) is a bigger stage, but this tournament is bigger in terms of what I can get from it for the future, as in points and money and all that. I’m being just as serious about this as Wimbledon,” Peliwo said.
The Futures series are the entry-level tournaments for the ITF. Any wins in a Futures main draw give ITF points, which determine in- ternational ranking, which in turn determines eligibility and seeding for future ITF tournaments. After the U.S. Open, Peliwo plans to play as many Futures, and the next-level Challengers, as possible.
Peliwo actually competed in the Saskatoon Futures last year, before he entered the spotlight, but was knocked out in the first round by third-seeded Steven Diez. Now, with more pro tournaments under his belt, Peliwo is ranked 579th in the ITF men’s ranking, good enough for the number-seven seed in this year’s draw. Should he advance, Peliwo won’t come up against another seeded opponent until at least the third round, when he could potentially face number-two seed Benjamin Mitchell of Australia.
According to Peliwo, the extra year of training has brought major improvements to his game.
“I CAN’T FIND ANY BETTER WORDS TO DESCRIBE IT. I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE THAT I DID IT,” FILIP PELIWO
“It’s a huge difference. I’m playing a lot more consistently. I’ve gotten bigger. I’ve developed my weapons more. I’m just a more solid all-around player. I’d say that mentally I’ve also learned to stay focused and play every match,” he said.
Peliwo’s first match of the tournament is scheduled for 5 p.m. today against Alexander Sarkissian, an American who earned a spot through the qualifying tournament earlier this week.
Peliwo is also playing in the doubles draw. He and his partner Hugo Di Feo won their first match Tuesday evening, and will play again Wednesday evening after Peliwo has time to recover from his singles match.
The 2012 Saskatoon Futures has a total purse of $15,000. The doubles final is scheduled for Friday at 5:30 p.m., with the singles final to take place at noon on Sunday.
All matches will be played at the Riverside Badminton and Tennis Club in Saskatoon.