ITF: Ones to Watch - Week of July 8, 2019

Martin Damm (USA) 

Making his Roland Garros debut and appearing in only his second ever Slam, Martin Damm showed no signs of inexperience as he enjoyed a scintillating run of results to reach the semi-finals in Paris and only to be stopped by the in-form Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune.

At just 15 years old, Martin, the son and namesake of former doubles world No. 5 Martin Damm (CZE) has enjoyed a fine clay court season in 2019, reaching the semi-finals of both the doubles and singles events at JA Milan in May and the final of both events at JA Porto Alegre prior to that. 

The USA National Junior Team member seems to be carrying this form with him into the grass court season, making the quarter-finals at Roehampton last week and will be hopeful of making an impact at SW19, an event where his father was a doubles semi-finalist on two occasions. 

Diane Parry (FRA) 

France’s Diane Parry endured a packed schedule during her time on home soil in Paris, competing across all four fronts with varying degrees of success.

A second-round exit in the Juniors singles was offset by success in the women’s doubles - where she reached the round of 16 – and a notable straight sets victory in the women’s singles, her first main draw singles success at a Slam. 

Coming into the grass court season, the Nice native made the semi-finals of the ITF J1 event at Roehampton last week, only losing out to eventual winner Darla Snigur, and will head to the lawns of Wimbledon eager to build on her 2018 experience which saw her make the quarter-finals of the doubles in the Junior draw.

Darla Snigur (UKR) 

Often players struggle to get to grips with the arrival of the grass court season however Ukraine’s Darla Snigur proved totally unphased by the move to a new surface, continuing her fine 2019 which has included reaching both the semi-finals at the Junior Australian Open and the quarter-finals of Junior Roland Garros. 

The Ukranian swept past eighth seed Alexa Noel in the final of J1 Roehampton in straight sets, dropping only three games, to claim her first ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors title. 

Snigur, who was competing in only her third ITF grass court event, said in her post tournament interview that grass is her favourite surface, and will no doubt look to further her run of form at the All England Club where she suffered a second-round loss in qualifying in 2018.