The Weissenhof Wild Card goes to Russia For one week 450 junior tennis players were fighting for the championship of the Mercedes Youth Cup in Renningen and Rutesheim. Besides a fancy cup, designed by the artist Dirk Speckter from Heimerdingen, and the points for the European ranking list, there was a special price for the Boys 16&Under: The winner will get a Qualification Wild Card for the Mercedes Cup at the Weissenhof; a tournament for the pro’s! Aleksey Vatutin is the one who got this Wild Card. The young man from Volgograd stood up against Matthias Wunner from Nürnberg with 6:2, 6:3 in yesterdays final. It was the second final-defeat for Wunner at the Mercedes Youth Cup: Last year he lost the boys 14&Under final. This year two boys from Germany were competing here: Michael Bogner from Amberg and Tim Wrede from Norderstedt. In the beginning it seemed like a clear match for Bogner, but after the 1:6 Wrede got back into the match with 6:3. But Bogner came back in the third set with a vengeance and finished 6:1, 3:6, 6:1. The Girls 14&Under had a strictly East-European final for the forth year in a row: Olga Ianchuk from the Ukraine versus the Bulgarian Botusharova. She got to the Mercedes Youth Cup as a player of the ITF Junior Team, a sponsoring program of the ITF where the youngsters of financially disadvantaged country-associations get a chance to participate at international tournaments. In every of the past three years at least one single title went to the “ITFers”, but this year there were only two successes at the doubles. Botusharova was succeeded by Ianchuk with 3:6 and 3:6. For the first time in five years a German girl made it into the finals of the Girls16&Under. Anna Klasen arrived here at the beginning of the week with her older brother, her younger sister and her mother. While her sister failed in the qualification, Anna and her brother Friedrich won round after round. But that didn’t hold their mother from flying back home for the third daughter, who’s first day of school was coming. But since 14-year-old daughter got to the finals, the whole family came back to Renningen. Unfortunately not with the hoped for result: Anna Klasen lost the final to the number 11 of the European Rankinglist, the Russian Maria Biryukova. With this, she was able to celebrate the biggest success of her career so far. From Wednesday on she will definitely be in the European Top 10. That’s where the Mercedes Youth Cup already is: “This tournament definitely is unique in Germany”, said Carsten Eberhardt of co-sponsor Head. Wolfgang Schindler of main-sponsor Mercedes Benz was totally satisfied, either. “We would be happy to support the tournament again next year”, was how he put it at the winners-ceremony. The Mercedes Youth Cup has a lot going for itself, that it will establish more and more at the top of the European Youth Tournaments within the next years