Timur Arbuzov (19) youngest male Grand Slam winner in 2024

He is just 19 year’s old and Timur Arbuzov maintains his position in the top ten of the world rankings but at juniors not seniors. However we can’t say he is totally unknown because despite his lack of seeding, he won bronze at the Paris Grand Slam just over a month ago, notching up surprise after surprise as the incumbents forget to do their research on him.

In the final, Boltaboev and Arbuzov, perhaps not the predicted finalists at the beginning of the day, engaged in non-traditional gripping from the beginning. The teenager, Arbuzov, favoured coming under the arm and taking the collar to pull down at back and he used it very well secure a first waza-ari with a hip technique. Shortly afterwards Boltaboev tried an ill-prepared sacrifice technique and Arbuzov capitalised on it, clamping down on top of the Uzbek to hold for ten seconds. He’s now a grand slam winner at only nineteen years old.

Therefore the first bronze medal contest was to be between Bonferroni and Muki. They may have been an expectation for the Swiss athlete to again bring his expert-level ko-uchi-gake but there was no way for that to happen, Muki not allowing the gripping or positioning to go in favour of his opponent at all. Muki threw with a seoi-otoshi from quite a distance, having an end-of-the-sleeve grip but a second drive ensured the ippon came. The world champion still has it!

The second bronze medal contests was entered by Falcao and Tatalashvili after Boltaboev put a stop to the Emirati athlete’s challenge for gold in their semi-final.

20 year old Falcao wasn’t far away from the medal but 34 year old Tatalashvili grappled hard to earn himself a waza-ari and despite the Brazilian’s valiant effort to chase him down, the medal went to the UAE.

Arbuzov’s semi-final could have been a step too far though as 2019 world champion Sagi Muki (ISR) was on fine form all morning throwing with seoi-otoshi, among other techniques, to win every contest positively and decisively. In the semi-final the Israeli looked no different and threw early to register a waza-ari but the independent athlete had an answer and threw Muki twice for victory.

The highest ranked athlete of the group, Francois Gauthier Drapeau was penalised out of contention early on, unable to match the intensity of Adrian Sulca (ROU) in Tbilisi but the Romanian also left before the medal matches, outmanoeuvred by a sharp and technical Swiss opponent.

Teenager Arbuzov is now the youngest male winner of a Grand Slam this year. Only Tara Babulfath was younger (18) in Baku in February. Yesterday Spanish Ariane Toro Soler won in Tbilisi aged 20 years who is now the number three of this season of youngest winners at a Grand Slam.