Young Bulgarian tennis stars Ivan Ivanov and Alexander Vasilev have officially qualified for the Masters tournament of the best eight tennis players under the age of 18 in the world. The competition will be held from October 22 to 26 in Chengdu, China. This tournament is the only one with a prize fund on the junior tour. The champion can potentially win 23,000 USD.
The tennis players will be divided into two groups of four players, and the first two in each group will qualify for the semifinals.
The champion of the US Open Championship Ivan Ivanov is a convincing leader in the world junior rankings under the age of 18. The 16-year-old Bulgarian won the singles title in New York, and before that became the champion of “Wimbledon”. Ivanov has won 12 consecutive Grand Slam titles and is a convincing leader in the rankings with 3,610.5 points. The Bulgarian tennis player also performed well, reaching the semifinals of Roland Garros, and this year he triumphed with the singles and doubles titles in the juniors at the ITF J300 tournament in France. The Bulgarian also reached the final of the J500 tournament in Milan. In May, Ivan Ivanov won the first title of his career in the men’s singles, after becoming champion of the clay tournament in Szentendre (Hungary) with a prize fund of 15,000 USD.
The US Open runner-up Alexander Vasilev climbed to world’s number two in the rankings with 2,577.5 points. Before that, he reached the singles semifinals and the doubles quarterfinals at Wimbledon, and also played a quarterfinal at Roland Garros. This year, Alexander Vasilev has won two junior titles at ITF J300 tournaments in Plovdiv and Spain. He became the doubles champion at the ITF J500 tournament in Offenbach (Germany), and also the runner-up in singles at the ITF J300 grass tournament in Roehampton (Great Britain). With these successes, Alexander Vasilev has collected 202 points more than No. 3 in the chart Andrés Santamarta Roig (Spain).
Ivan Ivanov and Alexander Vasilev are part of the Bulgarian Davis Cup team for the match against Finland in the Davis Cup World Group I. Bulgaria will host the match of the Men’s World Team Championship on September 13 and 14 at the courts of TC “Lokomotiv” in Plovdiv.
The team includes Petr Nesterov, Alexander Donski, Yanaki Milev, Ivan Ivanov and Alexander Vasilev.
If Bulgaria wins this match, it will play a qualification match to enter the World Group in February next year. If it loses, again in February 2025, there will be a play-off to remain in World Group I.
