Passport to Paris: Longines Future Tennis Aces

Sixteen of the top junior boys from the USTA Eastern, Middle States and New England Sections, as well as the Harlem Junior Tennis League, competed in the 2011 Longines Future Tennis Aces Tournament on Saturday, April 9 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The event was hosted in partnership with TENNIS Magazine. The stakes? To represent the United States during the final weekend of the French Open, when the winner will compete against fellow finalists from 15 countries around the world. In addition to the all-expense paid trip, the champion will compete for a chance to play with Andre Agassi and Jim Courier on the terre battue.

Luke Jensen, 1993 French Open doubles champion and current tennis coach at Syracuse University, was on hand to offer inspiration to the young players:

The participants were selected on two criteria: athletic performance and commitment to give back to the community. Agassi assisted in the selection process. One of the top performers in both regards was Aleksandar Kovacevic of New York, NY, who won his first two matches. He would eventually finish runner-up, earning himself courtside seats to this year's U.S. Open (he's looking forward to watching Novak Djokovic). Maggie Gray caught up with Kovacevic during the event to discuss his play and thoughts on philanthropy—each of the competitors was asked to write a 300-word essay on the topic:

The winner of the 2011 Longines Future Tennis Aces Tournament was 12-year-old Michael Zhao, who defeated Kovacevic in the final, 6-2, 6-1. As part of his prize, Longines will finance Zhao's tennis equipment until his 16th birthday. In a few days, Zhao will head to Paris and compete against fellow junior tournament winners from Australia, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Here's how Zhao felt after winning it all:

Full results from the U.S. finals of the 2011 Longines Future Tennis Aces tournament can be found here. U.S. participants for the Longines Future Tennis Aces tournament included:

Joshua Marchalik   USTA Eastern Section  East Brunswick, NJ
Finbar Talcott USTA Eastern Section Sea Cliff, NJ
Athell Patrick Bennett USTA Eastern Section Valley Stream, NY
Alan Denman USTA Eastern Section Great Neck, NY
Nicholas Fauchet USTA Eastern Section Pittsford, NY
George Gramatikov*  USTA Eastern Section  Vestal, NY
Sumit Sarkar USTA Eastern Section New York, NY
Aleksandar Kovacevic  USTA Eastern Section  New York, NY
Michael Chen Zhao* USTA Middle States Section Princeton Junction, NJ
Joseph DeMarco USTA Middle States Section Erie, PA
Eliot Rozovsky USTA New England Section Brookline, MA
Maxwell Freeman USTA New England Section Ashland, MA
Revanth Boppana USTA New England Section Boxboro, MA
Harris Foulkes USTA New England Section Belmont, MA
Zuhri Sinclair Harlem Junior Tennis League New York, NY
DJ Smith Harlem Junior Tennis League Roosevelt Island, NY

U.S. Champion, 2011 Longines Future Tennis Aces Tournament
Runner-Up, 2011 Longines Future Tennis Aces Tournament, U.S.
Consolation Draw Winner, 2011 Longines Future Tennis Aces Tournament, U.S.

Last year, Lauren Fishbein of Livingston, N.J., won the inaugural Future Tennis Aces event and the trip to Paris, where she competed against seven other girls from seven different countries including Australia, China and Russia. Participants in the 2010 tournament were selected by fellow Longines Brand Ambassador, Agassi’s wife and tennis Hall of Famer Stefanie Graf.

The Road to Longines Future Tennis Aces is part of Longines’ global commitment to support and develop tennis’ superstars of tomorrow. All the players who qualify for the Paris event will have the opportunity to attend the French Open Women’s Final on June 4.