A well-entrenched girls champion and a pair of rising boys contenders headline the deep roster of competitors in action as the 2014 DODDS-Europe tennis season begins this weekend. Here’s a look at who might be in the mix when champions are crowned Oct. 23-25 at Wiesbaden:

GirlsPowerful Wiesbaden ace Jade Sullivan grew stronger as her eventual coronation grew more and more certain over the course of her dominant sophomore season last fall. As she returns for her junior year, only one question remains: how good can she be?

A semifinalist as a freshman, Sullivan didn’t drop so much as a single set in the first month of her sophomore campaign, capably cruised through the European championship bracket and claimed the title in straight-set style.

Sullivan is a natural athlete, a year-round tennis player and a rapidly-improving prospect who is still refining her craft as she enters her third year of DODDS-Europe competition. It’s safe to say she won’t regress; the rest of the girls’ field will have to catch up to her. And as good as Sullivan is, that’s not entirely out of the question.

Foremost among threats to Sullivan’s reign is a familiar foe, Patch’s Marina Fortun. The October regular-season match between the two was an immediate classic that held up as arguably the best match of last season even after the European tournament unfolded. Sullivan won that match 7-5, 5-7, 6-2, and Fortun’s upset semifinal loss to young International School of Brussels phenom Anouchka Laurent Josi kept the two from meeting at the tournament. But a long-delayed rematch with Fortun would certainly test Sullivan’s newfound supremacy.

The upstart Josi, meanwhile, continues to lurk as a potential game-changing enigma in DODDS-Europe tennis after disrupting the organization’s power structure as a freshman phenom last fall. ISB coach Bernard DeConinck said he’s not sure if Josi will return to the program this season.

BoysRecent years have seen a growing trend of DODDS-Europe boys tennis stars departing as underclassmen and leaving brilliant but truncated careers in their wake. Now reigning European singles champion Peter Kovats has joined their ranks; transferring from Lakenheath to Florida’s esteemed IMG Academy.

But just as Kovats was among the pack of contenders eager to occupy last year’s vacant throne, a new set of potential champions is lining up.

That lists starts, conveniently enough, with 2013 singles runner-up Fabian Sandrup Selvik of ISB, and continues with Naples ace George Shaffer, who fell to Kovats in the semifinal round last fall.

Though Selvik advanced a round deeper, Selvik and Shaffer are almost indistinguishably qualified to take over as European champion. Both sailed into the semifinals without losing a set, and they lost to Kovats by nearly identical scores: Shaffer fell 6-2, 6-2; Selvik lost 6-2, 6-3. The geographically distant rivals didn’t play head-to-head in the regular season or in either of the last two European tournaments. If and when the two finally share a court, a European title might hang in the balance.

broome.gregory@stripes.com

Twitter: @broomestripes

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