Winning the German Junior Open moved Jamie Mackenzie up to number five in the world, as well as increasing his lead over the other German players, and that ensured his second seeding in the Italian equivalent. In the singles final he faced the very tall Thilo Behrmann, who is the current world number nine and Austria’s number one, which was enough to make him third seed for this event.
When people hear the word “junior” in relation to tennis, they so often think of players in their mid-teens who are built like the proverbial matchstick and play accordingly. That certainly doesn’t apply to Mackenzie, who regularly serves at over 200 km/h, or to Behrmann, whose serve is nearly as good and who covers plenty of ground with his long legs. One thing that applies to both, though, is noise, as they are two of the loudest grunters around.
Behrmann served first after winning the toss, and the only point he lost was to a fabulous forehand winner down the line from Mackenzie, the first of many such shots from both players that drew plenty of applause from the crowd on Centre Court. Mackenzie started his own game with a beautiful cross-court forehand drop shot, while Behrmann opened his section of the highlights package with a blistering forehand down the left sideline to end a good rally.
An attempted drop shot by Mackenzie that went into the net conceded the first deuce of the afternoon, but he aced Behrmann out wide to get the advantage before forcing him to hit a cross-court backhand return that just crept into the tramlines. The Austrian had to watch Mackenzie end another good rally with a terrific cross-court forehand winner, and then hit a backhand into the net to give away three break points. He saved two of those with unreturnable serves, while Mackenzie lost the second when he hit a cross-court forehand wide.
Behrmann did the same with a cross-court backhand to give Mackenzie another break point, and gifted the German the game with a backhand into the tramlines. Mackenzie consolidated the break by holding to love, and Behrmann did the same after winning the second point with a fabulous inside-out forehand into the corner.
The next game was the only one in the set which had more than one deuce, and Mackenzie got to the first of those with an ace out wide to save the break point that he had been forced to concede. He gave away another break point with a cross-court backhand into the net to end a good rally, but saved that one with the shot of the match, a wonderful forehand drop shot down the left sideline which just sneaked over the net.
He sent forehands over the baseline to lose his next two game points before a service winner after the fourth deuce was followed by an easy forehand winner down the right-hand side of the court. The longest game of the match had taken eight minutes and 20 seconds. Just like in the opening game, Behrmann lost only one point in the next, but it was to a fabulous cross-court forehand winner from Mackenzie, who finished his own game with a similar shot that ended in the corner.
Another terrific forehand down the line from Mackenzie ended the good rally on Behrmann’s first point, and they each hit lovely cross-court backhand winners to go to deuce. Mackenzie then hammered a forehand into the net before Behrmann completed the game with a beautiful backhand winner through the left side of the court.
Mackenzie was now serving for the set, and he started with a repeat of the shot which won him the first point in the previous game. Behrmann gave away two set points when forced to hit a forehand over the baseline, and he lost the first of those when forced to hit his inside-out backhand return into the tramlines. The set had taken 46 minutes.
Behrmann held comfortably to start the second set, the only noteworthy shot being a beautiful backhand return from Mackenzie, who then lost his serve when he finished the game with two poor forehands. Behrmann took full toll of those errors by holding safely again, winning the good short rally on the last point with a beautiful cross-court backhand volley.
Mackenzie added another lovely cross-court forehand winner when he served again, but I thought he was going to give away another break when he hit shots into each tramline. He got to deuce by forcing Behrmann into a return error, but the Austrian grabbed another break point with a fabulous backhand winner down the line off a drop shot. Another unreturnable serve got Mackenzie to a second deuce, and he got the advantage with yet another terrific drop shot before forcing Behrmann to hit a forehand return over the baseline.
The next two games went with serve before Behrmann found himself at 0-40 after he followed two backhand errors with a double fault. He saved the first break point with a superb cross-court forehand winner into the corner, and the second with an unreturnable serve, but sent an inside-out forehand into the tramlines to lose the third, and Mackenzie cruised through the next game to level the scores.
He added a stunning forehand winner down the line before forcing Behrmann into a forehand error to again see the Austrian at 0-40. This time Behrmann could save only one break point, by hitting a fabulous forehand winner down the left sideline, before losing a good rally when he hit an inside-out forehand past the end of the tramlines. Mackenzie was now serving for the match, and he completed the victory in style with an ace down the middle. The final score was 6-4, 6-4, and they had been on court for an hour and 29 minutes.
Mackenzie is in the best form of any of the juniors as they head towards Roland-Garros at the end of this week, and his victory will move him up to number four in the rankings. He’s still a long way behind Ivan Ivanov in the points, but at least his match against the world number one in Vic will have given him plenty to work on for a possible rematch in the French capital.