Bonfiglio – Mum, meet N.B.O.!!!

I promised to write something on Bonfiglio for you English readers, and here we are. Though, before concentrating on the main topic of this article, a few highlights on what happened on the ITF tour with respect to top juniors who missed Bonfiglio: let’s start with Anastasia Potapova, who reached the semifinal of a 100k (!), by profiting of a wolkover, but beating in the process players such as Kozlova (6-1 6-2 to the 140 in the world!!!), Govortsova, in 3 sets, and losing by Cepede Royg in three tight sets. It seems that Anastasia is able to compete with top 100s in this great period of her career. Further, both Bianca Andreescu and Kayla Day have attempted the qualifications to the French Open; Andreescu lost in the first round by Smitkova in three sets; Day reached the second round and lost, again in three sets, by Maryna Zanevska, after having easily dismissed Govortsova in the first round.

But, now, let’s focus to our main topic. In the last article I wrote in English, I expressed all my sadness, having had to say goodbye to the Beloved One. The plan was to write another 15 articles on my mourning due to this miserable occurrence; though, my friends, the director of the website and the webmaster too have encouraged me, saying that I should move on, that life continues, that I have to be strong etc. etc. And then it happened: while attending the qualifications of Bonfiglio I saw… her!: the New Beloved One!!! I anticipate that N.B.O. (short form) is special indeed: she owns all the features that a man would look for in a girl to love: her frame is small; her sliced backhand is good; she variates the game; and she hits the ball in such a unique way… Oh… N.B.O…

Trying to overcome my romanticism, let’s start from the beginning, by saying that my intention was to attend a match of Aurora Zantedeschi, an Italian player who was scheduled against this never-heard-of American, Elizabeth Mandlik. Zantedeschi is not a prominent junior, but indeed she strikes the ball very well, and hard: she is a bit slow though, and this penalises her. But actually I did not focus on Aurora’s game: all my attention was addressed to Aurora’s micro-opponent, who was effortlessly hitting the ball to the other side to oppose to Zantedeschi’s big shots and, every time she could, hit winners that with so much ease she immediately impressed me: it was as if she did not move to reach the ball, her motion was always so elegant, precise and composed that it was as if the ball went to her. When N.B.O. hits, she is always in control, as if she utilised 60% of her power; her shots are so natural and easy that they all seem riskless. This girl is nothing less than the Platonic idea of grace applied to tennis.

All the features listed above have a precise origin: you must know that, as in all great love stories and fairy tales, the New Beloved One is actually a princess: try to add “ova” to N.B.O.’s surname and… yes; she is indeed the daughter of HANA MANDLIKOVA (geeeez)!! As per N.B.O.’s shots: her serve that day was ok, not at all explosive; backhand and forehand both effective, I could not choose. She plays fairly flat both shots (as per today’s standards), but she can spin the ball much more with her forehand, if she decides to do so. Sometimes she slices her backhand; most often she plays a classic double handed; plus, she likes variations: it’s hard to see two balls in a row played by N.B.O. in the same way. Of course, the girl is not a heavy-weight player, as you could imagine from the description above: her game mostly relies on her touch and amazing feel. Zantedeschi was not a tough opponent to Elizabeth (N.B.O.’s real name) and she dismissed the Italian with ease. Notwithstanding all the qualities I attribute to her, quite surprisingly I never saw her at the net; and all the night long I’ve wondered how a girl who hits the ball so cleanly and perfectly does not play any volleys nor dropshots.

The following day, I was still fascinated and curious about this girl, so I asked to her coach more info on her. You can find his interview (in English, of course) under the video section of Tennisunderwold Facebook’s page. In particular, I expressed to the coach my surprise that this girl did not play more vertical; he told me that the Elizabeth was not in her best period and that she had lost a bit of confidence. Before arriving in Milan she lost in Santa Croce a match where she was leading in the decisive set by something like 5-1, not being able to convert, give or take, ten match points. Though he confirmed to me that she is a skilled volleyer and that she can also serve much harder than what she showed against Zantedeschi.

The second time I saw N.B.O. was in a tougher match: in the last round of the qualification she was scheduled to play against Noa Krznaric, a Croatian young girl born in 2003 (by the way, NBO is born in 2001). Krznaric has an outstanding pedigree: she has already won a couple of grades 4 and 5 and she ranks in 80^th spot in the Tennis Europe ranking (all). Notwithstanding her young age, she already is a formidable athlete: she hits the ball very hard and is destined to become a very powerful and strong player. For sure her tennis is not the most imaginative one can see (basically it can be summarised in “I hit whatever it comes as hard as I can”), but this is not a problem of hers: I am sure that she will achieve great results, starting already from next year. The match started quite badly for Mandlik, who was initially intimidated on the court and overwhelmed by the more powerful, even if younger opponent. Down by 3-0 (having been broken twice), the American started to be a bit more aggressive and to variate more her game, being able step by step to recover and to win the set by 7-5 – to do so, she also exploited a weakness of the Croatian which I noticed in a previous match of hers: Noa tends to miss many forehands when hitting a high and weightless ball. In the second set, N.B.O. was immediately able to take a 2-0 lead; I thought that the match was downhill for her at that stage, but Krznaric is not the kind of girl who gives up and was able to equalise. Soon after I left the match, since I wanted to attend the training of BerghemIga, which was going on in the court in front of the New Beloved One’s, and then the training of the Beloved One, which took place on the court just next to N.B.O.’s. I was thus able to watch with my left eye the Beloved one and my right the New Beloved One: the experienced wasn’t perfect though, because the girls, clearly, were jealous one of the other. In any case, finally N.B.O. was able to beat her opponent, I think by 6-3. She thus qualified to the main draw, but lost in the first round against Federica Bilardo.

The (part of) this Mandlik’s match I followed anyway confirmed all the good impressions which she left me with the day before; plus I indeed saw her hitting a couple of very violent serves which, taking in account her small frame, surprised me a lot. Her coach for sure did not lie: whilst I was following her match, she aced three times and won a couple more of direct point with her first serve; and she did that in delicate phases of the match, showing thus she also has guts. N.B.O. in this match tried to come to the net a couple of times but, honestly, the results were quite obnoxious: first she flooded in the net an easy high volley and then she failed an even easier smash (though, I am still sure she is a great volleyer: it just can’t be otherwise).

I don’t know if Elizabeth will become highly competitive or not, because, as it is difficult to assess any junior, it is even more difficult to assess a tiny one as she is: in any case, if you have the chance see N.B.O. playing, don’t waste it: in some respects she plays the most beautiful tennis I have ever seen on the junior tour.

I’m done: now I have to catch a fight I booked for the U.S. to go to look for N.B.O.: only issue is that she is scheduled to play soon some 25ks in Europe.