Ajdin Tahirovic reaches for a running forehand during a practice tennis match on Patch Barracks on Tuesday. The Patch freshman is the top seed in this week's DODDS-Europe tennis championships. (Warren Peace/Stars and Stripes)
Ajdin Tahirovic reaches for a running forehand during a practice tennis match on Patch Barracks on Tuesday. The Patch freshman is the top seed in this week's DODDS-Europe tennis championships. (Warren Peace/Stars and Stripes)
Ajdin Tahirovic serves during a practice tennis match on Patch Barracks on Tuesday. The 14-year-old freshman is seeded first in this week's DODDS-Europe tennis tournament. (Warren Peace/Stars and Stripes)
Ajdin Tahirovic, a 14-year-old freshman who was born in Bosnia-Herzegovina, moved to Vermont at age 3, and to Patch High School this year, is seeded first in this week's DODDS-Europe tennis tournament. (Warren Peace/Stars and Stripes)
A 14-year old freshman seeded No. 1 in his first time out at the European high school tennis championships has to be harboring a jitter or two on the eve of the tournament, right?
Wrong.
“I’m not worried at all,” Bosnian-American Ajdin Tahirovic said by telephone last week. “I play against good players in international tournaments almost every weekend during the summer. Players wouldn’t come from Japan for them if they couldn’t play.”
And Tahirovic wouldn’t be there, either, if he didn’t play at that level.
He does.
In his initial high school season, Tahirovic, who plays year-round with a German club, has lost just seven games on the court. Two of those came his first time out, in a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Rene Bourgeois of Hohenfels that was later stripped from him for not having the requisite 10 practices with his high school team.
That was in Week 2. Since then, he’s won four matches at love, and he capped his tuneup for the DODDS-Europe tournament last Saturday with a 6-1, 6-4 conquest of Heidelberg’s Cameron Meeker. Meeker, the No. 5 seed at Euros this year, was half of last year’s bronze-medal doubles team.
All in a day’s work for Tahirovic, who in his 14 years has packed enough adventure into his life to fill a novel.
“We moved from Bosnia to Burlington, Vermont, when I was three,” Tahirovic said. “I started playing tennis when I was five.”
And never let up.
“Since then, he has never stopped practicing for more than two weeks at time,” Ajdin’s father, Ismet, said Sunday by telephone. Predictably, father and son were on their way home from practice when interrupted by that phone call.
“My dad is my coach,” Tahirovic had said earlier. “I play better when he’s around.”
That’s fine with Patch coach Walter Fritz, who cited the younger Tahirovic’s ability to play above his years as a huge reason for his early success.
“He practices with his father after practice,” Fritz said. “He’s really in control of his game. Most freshmen have a tendency to over-hit. Ajdin plays within himself.”
Tahirovic’s control likely is an outcome of all that practice and all that tournament experience. According to the elder Tahirovic, his son was ranked among the Top 10 in New England as a 10-year-old. And according to Fritz, the younger Tahirovic is a Top 20-ranked player for his age group in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.
He can play, despite having to learn the game in the chill of Vermont. In fact, his family’s move to the less-than-ideal climate for tennis might work in his favor on the indoor courts in the Wiesbaden suburb of Nordenstadt, where the European title matches are scheduled to be played on Saturday. His father says Tahirovic is used to playing indoors and likes the indoor surface.
Awaiting him in Wiesbaden is defending champion Nikolay Gospodinov of SHAPE. And Gospodinov lost in three sets two weeks ago to Patrick Tan of International School of Brussels, who’ll also be there, along with last year’s No. 1 seed, Emir Isik of Bahrain. All in all, it figures to be quite a scramble for the gold medal.
Which is fine with Tahirovic, who welcomes the challenge of playing tennis at the top level.
“I love tennis,” the top seed said. “All I do is tennis and school.”
European tennis championshipsWhen: Thursday-SaturdayWhere: Singles at Tenniszentrum Vitis, Wiesbaden-Nordenstadt; boys doubles at Medenhalle tennis center, Medenbach; girls’ doubles at Hochheim tennis center, Hochheim. Title matches expected to be played Saturday, beginning at 11 a.m. at Vitis center.What’s at stake: Individual crowns in singles and doubles; European Divisions I, II and III team titles
2009 individual championsBoys singles — Nikolay Godpodinov, SHAPEGirls singles — Ginevra Bolla, Marymount International School of RomeBoys doubles — Juan De La Tore and Andrei Mavris, SHAPEGirls doubles — Meghan Augsburger and Olivia Rockwell, Ramstein
2009 team championsDivision I — RamsteinDivision II — American Overseas School of RomeDivision III — Brussels
2010 seedingsBoys singles1. Ajdin Tahirovic (Patch)2. Patrick Tan (ISB) 3. Nikolay Gospodinov (SHAPE)4. Emir Isik (Bahrain)5. Cameron Meeker (Heidelberg)6. Aryan Von Eicken (Ramstein)7. Jon Lightner (Patch)8. James Chase (Heidelberg)Boys doubles1. Jack Kolodziejski and Darien Ward (Heidelberg)2. Trevor LePage and Daniel Roman Cohen (AOSR)3. Forrest Kamperman and Lee DeBose (Ramstein)4. Arman Alarilla and Evin Alarilla (Wiesbaden)5. Brice Tanner and Kristof Viranyi (ISB)6. John McCrea and Eric Liebig (Bitburg)7. Francesco Agosti and Giovanni Scuri (Milan)8. Charlie Schoonover and Dylan Rehwaldt (Patch)Girls singles1. Ginevra Bolla (Marymount)2. Carli Arza (AOSR)3. Paige Chase (Heidelberg)4. Sayaka Goto (ISB)5. Kaitlyn Miller (Bitburg)6. Svenja Jansen (SHAPE)7. Laila Ali Fahmi (Bahrain)8. Michaela Corral (Ramstein)Girls doubles1. Meghan Augsburger and Olivia Rockwell (Ramstein)2. Stephanie Seitz and Taylor BohenClark (AFNORTH)3. Ginevra Di Cagno and Taylor Roman Cohen (AOSR)4. Yu Muakami and Ana Torrijos (ISB)5. Ashley Charles and Taylor Dore (Wiesbaden)6. Kasmira Schiava and Elisse Hooley (Milan)
