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Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania and Jerzy Janowicz of Poland were looking to score historic firsts. Neither of their countries had ever won a Grand Slam junior boys’ singles title. When Berankis, the No. 15 seed, defeated Janowicz, who was unseeded, 6-3, 6-4 to earn the U.S. Open championship, he became a hero in Poland.

“It feels very good, just an unbelievable feeling,” Berankis said. “It was actually the third Grand Slam I played pretty well. Last year, I played the qualifying, and I couldn’t qualify. This year I won which is better (said with a smile).”

A semifinalist in Australia, Berankis reached the same position at Wimbledon, and was a Roland Garros quarterfinalist. Having turned 17 in June, he lives in Vilnius, and is a member of the 2007 International Tennis Federation Touring Team.

“No, I didn’t watch him even once,” Berankis said of Janowicz. “I saw him only yesterday for the first time.”

Other than the fact that Lodz is his hometown and his birthday is November 13, 1990, not much was known about Janowicz until he began surprising name players. He won three consecutive three set matches, defeating Bernard Tomic of Australia, No. 5 seed Greg Jones of Great Britain and No. 11 seed Thomas Fabbiano of Italy on his march to the final. In the quarterfinals, Fabbiano was 6-4, 6-2 better than No. 1 ranked Uladzimir Ignatik of Belarus, the Roland Garros boys’ champion who was also a Wimbledon finalist and trains with John Roddick, Andy’s brother, in Texas.

Thanks to his coach’s friendship with Roger Federer’s manager, Berankis spent time during the second week of the Open (the junior events began on the first Sunday, in New York) hitting with the game’s top player. Asked if he was going to warm him up before the men’s final, the youngster offered after his triumph, “Yeah, in a half hour.”

Berankis added he had practiced with Federer in Dubai a month earlier in preparation for the year’s final Grand Slam. (An aside, the Open winner said he really like the Lithuanian because he comes from a hard working family, his father is a taxi driver, and wanted to give him a chance because he has so much promise.)

“It’s just completely different,” he said of trading strokes with the No. 1 player. “He hits the ball solid and fast. He’s like the God of tennis right now. So when you see him standing on the other side of the net, of course, it¹s different.”

Admitting it was hard to play at first with the Swiss star, Berankis continued, “The first few days it was hard, but he treated us like good friends. After that it was okay, we relaxed.”

Looking ahead, the Lithuanian admitted, “I will see. It’s early to say” when quizzed about turning professional. Treasuring his first Grand Slam tournament title and moving to the No. 2 ranking in the International Tennis Association listing, he concluded, “I'm gonna have a few days off. Then we are going to play some future tournaments in California. After that I’m going home for one month, then coming back to the States.”