"Can hardly describe the feeling": Leo Borg wins Grade 1 junior tournament
Leo Borg , son of tennis legend Björn Borg (11 Grand Slam titles), won the Brasil Juniors Cup in Porto Alegre.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Mar 02, 2021, 12:07 pm
In the final, the 17-year-old prevailed 3: 6, 6: 4, 6: 2 against the three seeded Bruno Kuzuhara from the USA. The cup? It was then presented by father Björn Borg.
The Brasil Juniors Cup belongs to the second highest category of junior tournaments, it is the biggest triumph for Borg to date.
"I can hardly describe the feeling," he said afterwards . "This is my first title in a Grade 1 tournament and I'm so happy about it." Borg, number 43 in the junior ranking at the start of the tournament, had to fight his way through the qualification, where he was the top seed. "I played well all week. It gives me the confidence to be able to compete at Grade 1 level. I want to thank everyone who has been so nice to me since the moment I got here," he said also the tournament officials.
In qualifying, Borg had won his second match in the match break, in the main draw he won in the semifinals in the tie break of the third set.
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Leo Borg is now number 20 in the junior world rankings
With his victory, Borg improved by 23 places and is now number 20 in the ITF Juniors Ranking. Final opponent Kuzuhara is number 4. Number 1, Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune, is playing at the ATP tournament in Buenos Aires this week.
Borg had already played two ATP Challenger tournaments and two World Tennis Tour events in 2020 , but had no win .
The Brasil Juniors Cup had only moved from Porto Alegre to Criciuma some time ago - and had produced some prominent winners at the previous venue, such as the later French Open Champs Thomas Muster and Gustavo Kuerten or US Open winner Andy Roddick. The tournament is still running under the title "J1 Porto Alegre".