Petits As

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Les Petits As (English: Small champions) is a premier junior tennis tournament for players aged 12-14. It is held in Tarbes, France. It is often considered to be the European equivalent of the Orange Bowl in Florida, United States due to the high number of international players that it attracts.

The event has seen a number of its champions go on to become slam winners, including Rafael Nadal, Michael Chang, Martina Hingis, and Kim Clijsters. Due to the relatively restrictive age range, few players have won the title more than once, although Hingis and Timea Bacsinszky have both done so. Most recently, upcoming Spanish player Carlos Boluda became the first boy to do so.

The tournament is played on indoor Green Set (hard) courts. Roughly 7,000 players enter the pre-qualifying tournaments held across France, with that number being narrowed down to 350 for the final qualifying stage, and 64 for the final tournament.^[1] The event is regulated by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and has businesses such as Head, Eurosport, Coca-Cola, and Peugeot amongst its portfolio of partners.^[2]

Contents 1 Results 1.1 Boys' singles 1.2 Girls' singles 2 Exhibitions 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Results

[edit] Boys' singles

Year	Champion	Runner-up	Score
1983	Jean-Baptiste Bolle	Jean-Manuel Naves
1984	Frédéric Fontang	Miskolci
1985	Richard Krajicek	Philippe Leblanc
1986	Michael Chang	Johan Alvenn
1987	Reinhard Wawra	David Klein
1988	Brian Dunn	Julian Knowle
1989	Tommy Shimada	Gonzalo Corrales
1990	Maxime Boye	Magnus Norman
1991	Răzvan Sabău	Juan Antonio Saiz
1992	Olivier Mutis	Björn Rehnquist
1993	Miha Gregorc	Dymitry Caradima
1994	Juan-Carlos Ferrero	Fernando González
1995	Olivier Rochus	Gasper Martinjak
1996	Paul-Henri Mathieu	Todor Enev
1997	Julien Maigret	Carlos Cuadrado
1998	Matthew Smith	Mario Ančić
1999	Richard Gasquet	Brian Baker
2000	Rafael Nadal	Julien Gely
2001	Alexandre Krasnoroutski	Andy Murray
2002	Dylan Arnould	Robin Roshardt
2003	Donald Young	Leo Rosenberg
2004	Andrew Thomas	Vladimir Ignatic
2005	Chase Buchanan	Lazare Kukhalashvili	6-4, 4-6, 6-4[3]
2006	Carlos Boluda	Sebastian Lavie	7-6, 6-3
2007	Carlos Boluda	Christian Harrison	6-2, 6-2
2008	Edward Nguyen	Liam Broady	6-4, 7-5

[edit] Girls' singles

Year	Champion	Runner-up	Score
1983	Sybille Niox-Château	Cécile Bourdaix
1984	Emmanuelle Derly	Alexia Dechaume
1985	Sandrine Jacquet	Hanika Narbe
1986	Laxima Poruri	Gruben
1987	Kimberly Kessaris	Ursula Priller
1988	Anke Huber	Katherine Denn Samuel
1989	Nicole London	Zedna Malková
1990	Heike Rusch	Lindsay Davenport
1991	Martina Hingis	Dally Randriantefy
1992	Martina Hingis	Rita Kuti-Kis
1993	Stephanie Hallsell	Rika Vidats
1994	Anna Kournikova	Stephanie Kovacik
1995	Mirjana Lučić	Justine Henin
1996	Jelena Pandzić	Melissa Middleton
1997	Kim Clijsters	Elena Bovina
1998	Lina Krasnoroutskaya	Caroline Raba
1999	Bethanie Mattek	Mateas Mezac
2000	Dinara Safina	Lina Stanciute
2001	Vojislava Łukić	Jarmila Gajdošová
2002	Timea Bacsinszky	Alisa Kleybanova
2003	Timea Bacsinszky	Ioana Raluca Olaru
2004	Yelena Kulikova	Tamira Paszek
2005	Ksenia Pervak	Gracia Radovanovic
2006	Gabriela Dabrowski	Anna Arina Marenko	6-3, 6-4[4]
2007	Anna Orlik	Nicole Gibbs	6-4, 6-1
2008	Daria Gavrilova	Laura Robson	6-3, 6-3

[edit] Exhibitions

The tournament often features retired and/or active players making appearances in exhibition matches in the evening preceding the final day of play. It is common for upcoming and veteran French players to be present. In recent tournaments, players present have included:

• 2004: Yannick Noah and Henri Leconte.
• 2005: Juan Carlos Ferrero (a former champion) and David Nalbandian, who replaced compatriot and French Open champion Gastón Gaudio at the last minute.
• 2006: Rafael Nadal and Fabrice Santoro.
• 2007: Richard Gasquet and Gaël Monfils.
• 2008: Fabrice Santoro and Marc Gicquel, after Paul-Henri Mathieu and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga withdrew. Mathieu, who had injured himself at the 2008 Australian Open, signed autographs instead.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Les Petits As website (French) (English)
• 2008 Boys' Singles draw
• 2008 Girls' Singles draw