No guarantees for Peliwo despite junior success

 

Originally published on: 09/09/12 00:00

The 18-year-old Canadian rounded off his junior career by beating Britain’s Liam Broady 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 in the final of the US Open boys’ event.

Peliwo also won the Wimbledon boys’ title and was runner-up at the French and Australian Opens. He is the first player since Stefan Edberg to reach the finals of all four junior Grand Slam events.

“I have seen a lot of juniors before that have had success at this level and never really translated into the pro circuit,” Peliwo said after his triumph in New York. “I think it’s definitely looking good for me right now, but there are no guarantees. I'm just going to have to keep working hard and giving my best every day in training and then every match and try to develop my game as much as possible. I'm going to have to strengthen up physically and mentally, as well.

“It's going to be an interesting few years, I think, seeing how I develop. But I think that I'm quite confident that I can achieve big success on the pro tour if I just stay healthy and keep working hard.”

Peliwo is heading straight from New York to Montreal, where he will be helping the Canadian Davis Cup team, who meet South Africa in a World Group play-off. “It's going to be exciting,” Peliwo said. “This is my first time as a hitting partner for the Davis Cup team. I’m very proud.”

He said he would miss the junior circuit but added: “I'm excited to get back out into the pro tour and continue with that and be more of a full_ѥtime pro. Especially this year with my results, it’s been great to be playing on the junior tour. I’ve made a lot of friends over the past few years that I probably won't see for a while, but the dream was always to be a pro and I'm just very excited for that.”

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