By Jack Milner

Having had a successful year on the junior circuit, Ergi Kirkin will go into the Boys Under-14 draw at this year’s Nike Junior Tour (NJT) International Masters with an air of confidence. Kirkin was named top seed for the tournament that begins at Club Med Sandpiper Bay on Sunday December 8.

The Serbian-based Turk certainly justifies his place at the top of the stack. He has played 15 tournaments this year, winning four, and has reached either the semi-final or final in four other events. He has won 42 of 53 matches, which gives him a percentage of just under 80.

Kirkin’s draw looks pretty straightforward until he reaches the last eight. After a first-round bye, he is drawn to meet the winner of Slovak Dominik Hruncak and Chilean Felipe Escalona Ordenes in round two. The first seed he’s scheduled to face is No 5 Argentine Juan Otegui, with either No 4 Gabriel Decamps (Brazil) or No 7 Alen Avidzba (Russia) scheduled to be his semifinal opponent.

Alexei Popyrin is seeded No 2 and while he has not won a tournament this year, he has been competing predominantly in Under-18 events. He has even attempted to qualify for an ITF Futures tournament in Madrid.

Dropping to his own age group should make him most competitive and the Australian will be expecting to leave his mark on this tournament. Popyrin also has a bye in the opening round after which he will come up against the winner of South African Richard Thongoana and Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokino.

Sixth seed Max Stewart of Great Britain is drawn to be his quarter-final opponent with either third seed Camilo Ugo Carabelli of Argentina or German Rudolf Molleker, last year’s Under-12 champion, lurking as likely semi-final rivals.

The girls Under-14 draw looks particularly interesting because there are some unseeded players who performed well at the Eddie Herr International this week. If the draw goes according to plan the final should be between top seed Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic and No 2 Anastasia Mikheeva of Great Britain.

However, third seeded American Claire Lliu, winner of the girl’s Under-12 event last year, and No 4 Alessia Welti of Switzerland, have been playing some excellent tennis against older opposition. Welti is in the top half of the draw and is seeded to play Vondrousova in the semis while Lliu is seeded to face Mikheeva.

Also in the top half are Emilia Arango (No 5) of Colombia and Ulyana Grib (No 8) of Belarus with No 8, Ioana Guna of Romania, and No 7, Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine, in the bottom half.

However, based on their respective performances at the Eddie Herr unseeded American Kayla Day and Croatian Lea Boskovic could have a few surprises in store for their seeded opponents. Day was top seed and reached the quarter-finals while Boskovic was seeded No 13 and won through to the semis.

Adam Neff, top seed in the boys Under-12 draw, is sure to arrive from the Eddie Herr event in a buoyant mood. He will contest the final of that tournament against Bulgarian Adrian Andreev on Sunday morning after which both will be heading north to Port St Lucie to compete in the NJT International Masters.

Clearly, whoever wins will arrive with the more positive disposition but in all likelihood they will have to do it all over again during the week if the seedings go according to plan. Andreev is seeded No 3 and the pair are heading for a semifinal encounter.

Much is expected from second seeded Alexander Zgirovsky of Belarus. He lost in the quarters at the Eddie Herr but prior to that won two consecutive tournaments, one in Germany and another in Belarus.

Serbia’s Mihailo Popovic is seeded No 4 and is expected to face Zgirovsky in the semis. The other seeded players are No 5 Juan Cerundolo of Argentina, No 6 Wojtek Marek of Poland, No 7 Jack Draper of Great Britain and No 8 Tom Leblanc-Claverie of France.

Ekaterina Makarova of Russia has been seeded No 1 in the girls Under-12 draw and will go into the event brimming with confidence. She has had a remarkable year having won six of the 11 tournaments she contested in 2013. She reached the semifinals of the Eddie Herr and that should provide her with much self-assurance heading into this event.

Amanda Anisimova has the advantage of being based in Florida and like Makarova made the semifinals of the Eddie Herr International. On paper there is little to choose between the pair and the final should be a humdinger if both make it that far.

There are, however, a plethora of players who will be hoping to stop them. No 7 Alexandra Bakaldina of Switzerland is the players seeded to square up against Makarova in the last eight with No 4 Sabina Dadaciu Romania or No 5 Hanna Kubarava of Belarus drawn to meet in the second quarter-final.

In the bottom half Anisimova is expected to play No 8 Oleksandra Oliynykova of Croatia in the third round with No 3 Xiyu Wang of China and No 6 Ksenija Tmusic of Serbia seeded to meet in the other quarter-final.