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| 03 Sep 2001 | |
| British girls fall on Day One |
By Eleanor Preston
The US Open junior competition kicked off on Sunday with wins in the girls’ singles for big names like Ashley Harkleroad, who is playing at her home Grand Slam, top seed Kaia Kanepi and second seed Marie-Gaiane Mikaelian. All three were touted as favourites to win the prestigious US Open title before the tournament and all lived up to their billing with straight sets wins. Harkleroad was too strong for British junior Wimbledon semi-finalist Anna Keothavong, winning 7-5, 6-2, while Mikaelian dominated Salem Devisee in her 6-2, 6-1 victory. Only Kanepi came close to an upset, when she was pushed all the way by American wild card Tanner Cochran. Kanepi came from a set down to end Cochran’s challenge 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Further down the seedings, the biggest shock of the day came courtesy of 16-year-old Linda Smolenakova, who knocked out 14th seed Elena Baltacha, beating the Briton 7-6(5), 7-5.
It was sweet revenge for Smolenakova, who comes from Slovakia. She lost a close match to Baltacha at Wimbledon in July and said she was determined to reverse the scoreline this time around.
" I played her in the first round of Wimbledon and I lost but I played good," explained Smolenakova, "so I knew that I’d have a better chance on hard courts because that was on grass and in England."
Having won a tight first set after Baltacha twice came from a break down to force a tiebreaker, Smolenakova was again made to battle all the way in the second set, when Baltacha raced to a 4-1 lead. " So many times I win the first set and lose the second and when I was down today I just thought ‘oh no, not again’, said Smolenakova. "If I lose the second set I think I kill myself. I think God was telling me or something but I just played really well."
There was no shortage of support for Baltacha, including her coach, former top ten player Jo Durie, and British men’s Davis Cup captain Roger Taylor, but Smolenakova revealed afterwards that she had assembled her own cheer squad. Smolenakova was roared on by a group of American teenage boys, who clapped and shouted support after every point the sixteen year old played. " I don’t know them really, I met them when I was practising on Saturday and so they came to watch me, which was really, really nice," giggled Smolenakova. "I think they’ll watch me from now on!"
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