The ITF J300 Villena – Eduardo Ferrero Memorial has new additions to its illustrious list of champions. Names such as Carlos Alcaraz, Paula Badosa, Andrei Rublev, and Alejandro Davidovich have now been joined by Italy’s Raffaele Ciurnelli and Germany’s Mariella Thamm.

The day of the final was marred by the weather. In fact, the matches had to be played indoors, adding the extra stress of switching surfaces on the day of a major final. In the men’s draw, Bulgaria’s Kisimov, the tournament’s second seed, had the match in hand, leading by a set and a break. Despite this, Italy’s Ciurnelli kept believing in his chances and managed to take the second set to a tiebreak. A narrow victory in that tiebreak (9-7) spurred him to continue playing more aggressively and increase his trips to the net. He ultimately became the first Italian to win the title at Spain’s top-level international U18 tournament. He defeated his opponent 4-6, 7-6(9), 6-3.

The girls’ final featured two very promising contenders. The young Spaniard Paola Piñera, who had not dropped a single set throughout the tournament despite being just 15 years old, faced off against Germany’s Mariella Thamm. The tournament’s top seed was competing in this junior event to secure a seed at the Roland Garros Junior, but she is actually already more focused on professional tournaments, where she is already ranked within the world’s Top 600. The match was very close, but Paola, despite her impressive forehand, struggled to adapt to the change in surface, which allowed Thamm to take the initiative by consistently returning very fast shots. With a break in each set, Thamm won the tournament 6-3, 6-4.

The tournament enjoyed strong public support throughout the week and featured a high level of play from the junior Armada, led notably by Paola Piñera, who, had she won, would have been the youngest player to win the tournament since Carlos Alcaraz did so in 2019 at age 15. If she competes again next year, she could still attempt to match Paula Badosa, who won it at age 16.

Various officials were in attendance during the day. Notable among them were the president of the Valencian Community Tennis Federation, Mr. Francisco Vicent, and the Councilor for Sports of the Municipality of Villena, Ms. Maite Gandía. In honor of the tournament named after him, in memory of Eduardo Ferrero—father of tennis player and former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero—his daughter Laura presented the trophies to the champions, recognizing them as two of the world’s most promising young players today.