Weary champ Kuhn pulls out of Wimbledon in quest for pro tennis glory

Nicola Kuhn: The junior French Open doubles champion has pulled out of Wimbledon

Weary tennis champion Nicola Kuhn has played his last match as a junior after making both the singles and doubles finals at the French Open last week.

The Spanish whizkid and doubles partner Zsombor Piros were crowned junior champions at Roland Garros after a convincing 6-4 6-4 victory over US pair Danny Thomas and Vasil Kirkov in the final.

Three hours earlier, exhausted Nico missed out on the coveted singles crown, losing 7-6 6-3 to lanky Australian Alexei Popyrin after coming through a near-impossible three-match playing schedule the previous day.

Ironically, Torrevieja's blond  belter became a victim of his own success after storming into both finals on Friday, during which he dispatched the top seed, world number one Miomir Kecmanovic in a nailbiting singles semi-final.

And this week Nico announced that he was withdrawing from next month's junior Wimbledon, at which he would have been among the top seeds.

The build-up at Roland Garros reached its peak last Friday, when Kuhn inflicted a rare defeat on Kecmanovic, then teamed up with Piros to plough through two tough doubles matches and set up a Saturday showdown with Thomas and Kirkov.

Austrian-born Kuhn, whose colourful background embraces a German father, Russian mother and Spanish residency since he was three months old, went into Saturday's matches on the back of nine straight wins over the previous five days. But after effectively playing EIGHT sets of pressure tennis on Friday, something had to give.

The crunch came in his singles showdown on Saturday morning with the lanky Popyrin, whose route to the final had been eased by an early exit from the doubles and a relatively easy singles semi-final against Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Ironically, Kuhn might well have won the singles crown had he accepted an offer from Piros to ease his playing burden by withdrawing the partnership from the doubles.

Nico had been urged by his family not to take on the enormous task of competing for both the singles and doubles titles. And as his schedule began to get out of hand, Piros – who had already been knocked out of the singles - offered to abandon his own progress by withdrawing the partnership from the doubles.

Kuhn, who was 17 in March,  will be eligible to play at junior level until the end of 2019 but says he will no longer compete  in 18-and-under tournaments after pulling out of next month's junior Wimbledon in the wake of his Paris exertions.

He would have been among the top seeds for the junior singles title at Wimbledon but the lure of full-time professionalism and stronger opponents has not surprisingly won the day.

"No more junior tennis for me,'' he joked in an email to me this week. "It is all work and no pay and I am done with it!''

Kuhn and his back-up team, headed by coach Pedro Caprotta, will now focus all their attention on the men's circuit and maximising Nico's assault on the ATP rankings. 

He is currently listed 521 in the world behind No.1 Andy Murray and has targeted a place in the top 200 by the end of the year, which could well make him the highest ranked 17 year old on the planet.

Weary champion Nicola Kuhn counts cost of too much tennis

Shining stars: Zsombor Piros (left) and Nicola Kuhn celebrate their French Open junior doubles success

Exhausted tennis hero Nicola Kuhn missed out on becoming a double Grand Slam champion on Saturday after refusing his playing partner's offer to help ease his path to the French Open singles title.

All-action Kuhn and Hungarian teenager Zsombor Piros, the top seeds, went on to win the junior boys' doubles crown at Roland Garros – but a near-impossible playing schedule during the week eventually cost Nico a 7-6 6-3 defeat in the singles final.

Paris singles champ Alexei Popyrin (left) with runner-up Nicola Kuhn 

Torrrevieja-based Kuhn, 17, one of the tennis world's top emerging talents, had been urged by his family not to take on the enormous task of competing in both singles and doubles. And when all-conquering Nico found himself facing a bottleneck of THREE important matches on Friday, Piros – who had already been knocked out of the singles - generously offered to abandon his own progress by withdrawing the partnership from the doubles.

Ever-keen Kuhn decided, however, to take on the near-impossible triple challenge and went on to win all three matches – a singles semi-final against world No.1 Miomir Kecmanovic plus a doubles quarter and semi-final.

The strain of arguably the most exhausting schedule faced by any competitor at Roland Garros finally took its toll on Saturday morning, when a clearly weary Kuhn lost 7-6 6-4 to lanky Australian Alexei Popyrin in the singles final.

Three hours later came the happy ending as he and Piros took the boys' doubles crown, convincingly beating American duo Danny Thomas and Vasil Kirkov 6-4 6-4 in the final.

Kuhn will be eligible to play at junior level until the end of 2019 but is unlikely to compete in under-18 tournaments after next month's Wimbledon.

Currrently ranked 529 places behind world number one Andy Murray, he has targeted a place in the ATP top 200 this year – an achievement that could well make him the highest-ranked 17-year-old in the world.

Grand Slam kid Kuhn, 17, chases French tennis double

Spanish tennis sensation Nicola Kuhn beat the world's No.1 junior in three nailbiting sets to reach his first Grand Slam final in Paris today.

The 17-year-old Torrevieja superkid defeated US-based Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 7-6 2-6 7-6 - extending his winning run of matches at the 2017 French |Open to eight junior singles and doubles matches.

A couple of hours after beating Kecmanovic at Roland Garros, Kuhn was back on court with doubles partner Zhombor Piros - beating American pair Sam Riffice and Gianni Ross 6-4 6-4 to advance to his second final of the day.

Kuhn, who won his first professional title in Hungary two weeks ago and has since leapt to 530 in the ATP men's rankings, has now lost just one of his last 13 singles matches, eight of which have been on the professional circuit.

Blond-haired Nico, who was 17 in March, fought back impressively against Kecmanovic after going a service break behind to the American-based Serb in both the first and final sets. The Innsbruck-born Spaniard, son of a German father and Russian mother, went on to win the tiebreaks 7-5 and 7-4 to demonstrate that intense pressure brings out the best of him. 

In the boys' singles final, he will face Australia's Alexei Popyrin,  who beat Spaniard Alejandro Davidovitch Fokina 6-4 6-2 in the other semi.

Semi special Kuhn on path to double tennis glory in Paris

Nicola Kuhn confirmed his status as one of the world's hottest young tennis talents by storming into the Junior French Open semi-final at Roland Garros on Thursday morning.

And on a sensational day during which the Torrevieja kid had to play THREE matches, he and playing partner Zhombor Piros also stormed into the last four of the junior doubles.
Kuhn, who has now chalked up seven successive victories at Roland Garros, thrashed Australian contender Blake Ellis in a morning singles showdown – 'bageling' the 2016 Australian Open doubles champion 6-0 in the first set to crown a week of triumphs.

   In earlier rounds he despatched German Marvin Moeller (7-5 6-1), Japan's Naoki Tajima (5-7 6-2 6-4) and Chun Hsin Tseng of Taipei (6-1 6-3).

Kuhn, 17, was seeded 11 in the boys' singles, despite holding an ATP world ranking at senior level bettered only by top seed Miomir Kecmanovic  of Serbia, who will face Nico in Friday's semi-final.

The seedings were no doubt influenced by Nico's lack of junior action this year as he concentrates on climbing the ATP men's ladder. Roland Garros is his first junior tournament of 2017, as a result of which has seen him drop in the rankings from world number five to number 96.

Meanwhile, Kuhn and Hungarian Pilos - the top seeds - eased their way into the doubles semis with TWO victories on a day when Kuhn saw more action than any other player in the entire tournament.

 They had to fight back from a set down in both matches, winning the deciding tie-break sets 10-2 and 10-5 respectively.

Kuhn, who rarely plays doubles, has been in blistering singles form since teaming up with his old coach Pedro Caprotta at Torrevieja Tennis Club earlier this year. He spent five years living and training at former world No.1 Juan Carlos Ferrero's Equelite Tennis Academy in Villena before the switch.

' 'I wanted to make a change because I thought it would be best for me and my tennis,'' says Nico. “At the moment it is proving so. These things happen, there are times when you need a different direction and look for a change.''

Kuhn, who recently became only the second player born this century to win a men's professional title, is currently ranked 530 by the ATP. American-based Kecmanovic is ranked 466 but it is honours even in previous contests, Kuhn having beaten the Serb in three sets in Osaka in 2015 and Kecmanovic reaping revenge, also in three sets, in last year's Junior US Open quarter final.