After clinching an historic win for Germany on Saturday, Niels McDonald collapsed on to the red clay at Roland Garros in ecstasy, overwhelmed by his success in the boys’ singles.

Pitted against compatriot Max Schoenhaus in the first all-German boys’ singles decider at Roland Garros, the agile right-hander continued his excellent form in a high-quality final.

McDonald, who had previously ousted No. 1 seed Andres Santamarta Roig in three sets in the quarter-finals, rallied after dropping a tight first set to triumph 6-7(5) 6-0 6-3 in 1hr 40min.

“It's an honour because probably a lot of legends have won this,” said McDonald, who is the third German player to win the Roland Garros boys’ singles title and first since Daniel Elsner in 1997.  

“But also, it's just one step of a big goal and dream I'm chasing that I started with as a child. So today or tomorrow we can celebrate, but at the end, then we also go back to work.

“Then we keep working to maybe play here on the big stage one day.”

After a backhand return from Schoenhaus drifted wide on the final point, the beaten finalist demonstrated superb sportsmanship by offering the warmest of congratulations to a friend who he has spent the past week hitting with and sharing ice baths with after their matches.

With his predominantly blue outfit caked in clay, the 17-year-old champion then embraced several members of his support crew in emotional embraces.

This included his Stockholm-based coach Gianluca Marchiori, who is about to become a father.

“I'm really grateful to have him by my side. He's an awesome coach and I'm ready for the future with him to take the big steps,” McDonald said.

“If anyone was asking, I'm not stopping with him. It's just that he's taking a little break because he's becoming a father now, and I wish him best of luck for that of course.

”So we'll take some months off for him to have some time with his family and then we will go back on tour whenever he feels ready for it.”

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Prior to the final, Germany’s national junior coach Philipp Petzschner told Spiegel Sport he was incredibly proud of the performance of both boys.

But Petzschner did have one concern, having promised that if one of the pair reached the final, they could “do whatever they wanted” with his hair.

“But you certainly can’t expect to have two guys in the final. The whole week went well for us,” he said.

“Both boys had difficult phases in the tournament and fought through them brilliantly. I’m incredibly proud of them.”

The pair held Petzschner to his promise prior to the final, though after some dismay at their initial style of choice, they relented and let him shave all of his hair off.

Marchiori did not get off lightly either, having also accepted a side bet with McDonald.
There was only one caveat - the colour of choice could not be orange for the expecting father.

“We went to the barbershop yesterday at 6.30pm. We booked an appointment for him (Petzschner) and first we wanted to do an Avatar haircut, just like an arrow on his head,” he said.

“Then watching it live, we were dying of laughter. Then we ended up feeling so bad we said, ‘All right, shave everything off.’

“And just for everyone to know, I have one more bet with my coach. He said if I win, which I ended up doing, I'm allowed to put some colour into his hair now also.”

Schoenhaus, who possesses a fine single-handed backhand, started well and held his nerve
in the tiebreaker to gain the ascendancy before McDonald found his range and began firing.

“I lost the first set pretty close, but also with some nervous decisions that came out of nowhere, some not smart returns, some tightness on some shots,” he said.

“Then I just told myself, ‘All right. Now we go for more. Now we put even more energy in. Now we hit the balls more now.’ That ended up working out really well.

“I felt more powerful in the second and third set. I was feeling myself more. I was moving my legs better. It all came … into a mode of telling myself from the start of the second set, ‘All right. I can win this. I want to win this.’ So I pushed everything I could for that.”

The boys’ doubles final was clinched by Finland’s Oskari Paldanius and Alan Wazny who proved too strong for American combination Noah Johnston and Benjamin Willwerth when triumphant 6-2 6-3.