There are some players whom I just keep missing no matter how much I want to interview them and Attila Bucko was one of those. I had seen him play some in 2004, but that was just the beginning of one of the most incredible junior tennis years.
Eighteen year old Attila Bucko, who was born in Serbia and spent his teenage years in the junior tennis hotbed of Florida, was never far from the national event finals. His first final was in 2003 at the Prince Cup where he just missed the trophy in the Boys 16s. The following year he was victorious at the USTA Interscholastics and placed third at the Peach State. He finished the year by making the doubles finals (with Davey Sandgren) at the Chanda Rubin ITF Classic in November. That was the first of seven Chanda Rubin ITF finals for Attila, resulting in five trophies.
At the May 2005 Chanda Rubin ITF event Attila Bucko won the singles title and in September it was singles and doubles (with Mike Motyka). He came close to doing the same a few weeks later, but he and Mike were just shy of the doubles. In November it was another singles title for five of the Circuit's crowns. It wasn't just the Chanda Rubin events that Attila Bucko was making his mark on in 2005. Appearances in the finals of the Florida Open, USTA National Claycourts and USTA International Hardcourts, along with a National Open Championship helped bring him to a final USTA National Ranking of No. 4 in the Boys 18s.
Attila Bucko ended a chapter of his life in 2006. He played a few more junior events -- winning a National Open in Tampa -- before hanging up his junior tennis racquet. I caught up with Attila at the Eddie Herr International Championships. He was getting ready to finish up his life in the juniors and begin the next chapter -- as a college tennis player at Baylor University.
by Marcia Frost
