The Latest: Junior winner firmly from Andorra at Aussie Open

By Associated Press 01 February 2020, 12:00AM

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Latest on the Australian Open (all times local):

3:40 p.m.

The junior women's champion at the Australian Open admits she has split nationalities — Andorra and Spain. But her allegiance is firmly with Andorra, one of the smallest states in Europe.

Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva came from a set down to beat Weronika Baszak of Poland 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 in the final at Melbourne Park.

The 14-year-old Kasintseva said she picked up her first racket at the age of 3 and began playing on court with her dad, who has a small tennis academy, at the age of six.

She said she frequently travels between Andorra and Spain, where the academy is located.

Andorra is a small independent European principality situated among the southern peaks of the Pyrenees Mountains and bounded by France to the north and east and by Spain to the south and west.

"I only represent Andorra. Yeah, I live in between them two," she said.

In the meantime she will return to her school studies while juggling her promising tennis career.

"Well, I'm going to do preseason now, like one month of studying, a lot of physical preparation," she said. "Obviously I'm going to try to improve my shots. Then I'm going to play my first tournament, it's a 15K ($15,000 tournament) in March, I think in France."

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2:15 p.m.

Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra came from a set down to beat Weronika Baszak of Poland 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 in the junior women's final at Melbourne Park. Harold Mayot beat Arthur Cazaux 6-4, 6-1 in the all-French boys' final.

The women's final between two-time Grand Slam champion Garbiñe Muguruza and 21-year-old American Sofia Kenin was scheduled for the first night match at Rod Laver Arena.

The mixed doubles final was to follow. Britain's Jamie Murray and American Bethanie Mattek-Sands were to play fifth-seeded Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic and Croatia's Nikola Mektic. Mattek-Sands already has five women's doubles titles and four in mixed, while Murray is going for his eighth doubles title overall.

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More AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/apf-Tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

By Associated Press 01 February 2020, 12:00AM

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