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| 12 Dec 2001 | |
| Muller Falls in Second Round; Top 8 Girls Still Alive at BURGER KING Orange Bowl |
The 55th Annual BURGER KING Orange Bowl International Junior Tennis Championships saw No. 1 seed Gilles Muller depart in the second round on Tuesday.
Muller, the reigning US Open boys’ singles champion, fell to German Bastian Groenefeld, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2, in a battle that lasted nearly four hours. Despite the loss, Muller is expected to finish the year ranked No. 1 and follow Andy Roddick as ITF World Junior Champion.
Muller’s loss, coupled with No. 2 Janko Tipsarevic’s departure on Monday, leaves third-seeded Brian Dabul of Argentina as the highest-ranked player left in the draw.
Dabul easily defeated American Robert Yim, 6-1, 6-3 in the second round. He will next face No. 16 seed Daniel Kollerer of Austria. Dabul is trying to become just the sixth player in the history of the Orange Bowl to win both the 16s and 18s boys’ singles titles.
Players who won both the Orange Bowl Boys’ 16s and 18s singles
Player, Country
OB 16s Title
OB 18s Title(2)
Mariano Zabaleta, Argentina
1993
1995
Jim Courier, United States
1986
1987
Ivan Lendl, Czechoslovakia
1976
1977
Bjorn Borg, Sweden
1971
1972
Billy Martin, United States
1970
1973, 1974
Miami’s Alex Bogomolov will look to avenge a third round US Open junior loss when he faces No. 4 seed Lamine Ouahab of Algeria Wednesday. Bogomolov’s U.S. Sunshine Cup teammate Brian Baker, the No. 9 seed, saved three match points in the decisive third-set tiebreak before eliminating Russian Pavel Ivanov, 6-1, 2-6, 7-6 (8) in his second round match. Baker will face No. 5 seed Robin Soderling of Sweden in the third round.
In girls' action, each of the Top 8 seeds advanced to the third round and will compete on Wednesday.
No. 2 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, the girls’ singles runner-up at the Wimbledon and US Open girls’ this summer, saved four match points in her second round match against Karolina Sprem before winning 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (2) in just under two and a half hours. She will face No. 16 seed Bethanie Mattek in the only third round match pitting seeded players against each other.
No. 1 seed Marie-Gaiane Mikaelian hopes to repeat her success against Neyssa Etienne in their third round meeting. Mikaelian defeated Etienne in the US Open girls’ singles quarterfinals this summer.
The only other match on Wednesday between to girls’ who have already met on the ITF World Junior circuit will see Melanie Marois and Virag Nemeth meet in a rematch of their US Open first round encounter, won narrowly by Nemeth, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-5.
No. 4 seed Marion Bartoli of France, the reigning Orange Bowl Girls’ 16s singles champion, will face the highly-touted Maria Sharapova. The winner of that match will face the winner of an all-American battle between No. 5 Ashley Harkleroad and Alexandra Liles in the quarterfinals.
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