- Thursday, December 08, 2022
By: Rithika Siddhartha
INDIAN American tennis player Samir Banerjee on Sunday (11) lifted the Wimbledon boy’s singles title with a straight set win over compatriot Victor Lilov.
Playing only his second junior Grand Slam, the 17-year-old won 7-5, 6-3 in the final match that lasted in one hour and 22 minutes.
Banerjee’s parents moved to the US in the 1980s.
At the junior French Open, Banerjee, ranked 19 in the world, crashed out in the first round.
Yuki Bhambri was the last Indian to win a junior singles title when he triumphed at the Australian Open in 2009, while Sumit Nagal won the Wimbledon boy’s doubles in 2015 with Vietnam’s Ly Hoang Nam.
Ramanathan Krishnan was the first Indian to win a junior major when he won the 1954 Junior Wimbledon championship.
His son Ramesh Krishnan won the 1970 junior Wimbledon and junior French Open titles, while Leander Paes won the 1990 junior Wimbledon and junior US Open. Paes was also a runner-up at the junior Australian Open.
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