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| 06 Jun 2001 | |
| Seeds fall at Roland Garros |
By Chris Bowers
There was obviously something in the Parisian air that damaged favourites.
The top seed in the girls’ singles Aniko Kapros crashed out against the Slovak Lubomira Kurhajcova, and while Andre Agassi was losing on centre court, the boys’ singles almost lost its top seed, Janco Tipsarevic coming back from match point down to beat Santiago Gonzalez. Add to that defeats for the second seeds in both singles, and the junior tournaments have been thrown wide open.
Kapros was stunned 6-3 6-0 by the increasingly remarkable Kurhajcova, who has now reached the quarter-finals for the loss of just seven games in three matches. If Kapros was taken aback in the first set by the Slovak’s consistency, fluid movement and ability to find the angles, she was totally baffled in the second set by her own inability to counter it.
Screaming in Hungarian as her frustration grew, she never gave up but served two double faults in the final game and threw her racket towards her chair after conceding the match, seemingly unable to believe how little impact she could exert on her opponent. Kurhajcova now plays one of the 5/8 seeds Claudine Schaul.
Tipsarevic knew Gonzalez would be a tough opponent – the Mexican was riding high after beating Markos Baghdatis in the first round – but few expected the top seed to come so close to defeat.
The first set could have gone either way with both players having match points, before Gonzalez won it 9-7 on the tiebreak. Gonzalez had match point at 6-5 in a second tiebreak, but once the Yugoslav had saved it and taken the breaker 8-6, Gonzalez’s resistance deserted him, and Tipsarevic won 6-7 7-6 6-1. He now plays Carlos Cuadrado of Spain, who beat Luka Gregorc 6-2 6-4.
Another title contender to fall was the boys’ second seed Gilles Muller, beaten 6-3 6-3 by Iordan Kanev, who has now reached the quarter-finals without dropping a set. Kanev will play the Algerian Lamine Ouahab, who put out the French hopeful Richard Gasquet 6-3 6-4, though Gasquet was hampered by an arm injury.
Alongside Muller, the girls’ No 2 seed Jelena Jankovic was beaten 7-5 6-4 by Vera Zvonareva. Her quarter-final opponent will be Ashley Harkleroad, who for the second time this week had to go to three sets, on this occasion beating Nina Brattchikova 6-7 6-1 6-4.
As well as Cuadredo, two other 5/8 seeds in the boys’ singles have made it to the quarters. Milan champion Alejandro Falla beat Andrew Banks to set up a match against Adrian Cruciat, while Brian Dabul’s 6-1 7-6 win over Fernando Verdasco sets him up to face the German with the enormous backswing on his forehand Florian Mayer.
>Full results from the Roland Garros can be found on www.rolandgarros.com
Click here to view the 2001 Roland Garros picture gallery.
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