NORTH Vancouver's Filip Peliwo made his second consecutive junior Grand Slam tennis final on Sunday and for the second straight time ended up with the smaller trophy, this time losing to Belgian Kimmer Coppejans in the French Open final at RolandGarros.
Peliwo, seeded No. 5 in the tournament, won his first five singles matches but couldn't keep it rolling in the final, losing 6-1, 6-4 to the sixthseeded Coppejans.
In January Peliwo made the Australian Open junior final where he lost in three tough sets to world No. 1ranked junior Luke Saville. After that match Peliwo told the North Shore News he was disappointed with the loss but proud of the way he played, vowing to do what he could to get back into a Grand Slam final and win.
That opportunity came in the very next Grand Slam tournament but again he fell short in the final. This time around, however, Peliwo seemed to be much more illat-ease with the loss, slamming his racket to the ground after Coppejans clinched match point.
"If I hadn't let my anger out there would have been something seriously wrong with me," Peliwo told the Canadian Press after the French final. "This was the most disappointing day of my life.
"I'm not proud of breaking a racquet, but it happens sometimes. I got angry but I wasn't a sore loser. I told him he played a good match."
Peliwo, 18, produced four break chances against Coppejans but was unable to convert any of them while the Belgian managed to convert two break points in the first set and one in the second.
"I'm extremely disappointed, this was much worse than in Australia," said Peliwo. "There I put up a fight and played decent there. Here I was just really bad. My opponent played better than I've ever seen him play. I can't make excuses, he was better than me."
Despite the loss, Peliwo's strong showing in the tournament moved him up to No. 4 in the world junior rankings released Monday. He is scheduled to stay in Europe to play tournaments in preparation for his next shot at Grand Slam glory, the Wimbledon junior championships which are scheduled for the first week of July.
Peliwo is attempting to become the first Canadian male ever to win a junior Grand Slam championship. He's the first Canadian ever to play in two junior Grand Slam finals in one year and the first to play in the French Open junior final since fellow North Vancouverite Philip Bester made the championship game at Roland-Garros in 2006.
