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| 06 Jul 2001 | |
| Hopes of an all British girls final dashed |
By Eleanor Preston
It’s a case of all change in both the Wimbledon junior competitions, since all four finalists in the Girls and Boys tournaments will be making their debut in a Grand Slam final. Gilles Muller will play Roman Valent for the Boys’ trophy, while Dinara Safina faces Angelique Widjaja for a shot at the Girls’ title.
In the Girls’ semi-finals, it was a disappointing day for both the British players Anne Keothavong and Elena Baltacha, who couldn’t make the most of the home support at Wimbledon. Keothavong was overpowered 6-2, 6-1 by Safina. Playing on the famous No.1 court, Keothavong, who was hampered by a heavily strapped right thigh, could do nothing to stop the powerful Russian.
Baltacha, who came through a 9-7 third set in the quarters, couldn’t pull off any similar heroics against Widjaja. The Indonesian girl fought long and hard against Baltacha’s hard hit groundstrokes and dug in for a 5-7, 7-6, 6-2 win. In a tight first set, the Briton clinched it with a decisive break of serve at 5-6 and was a break up in the second set before Widjaja broke back and, mixing up the pace of the ball and forcing Baltacha into errors, she dominated the tiebreak.
With Baltacha finally beginning to tire in the third set, Widjaja played assured, clever tennis, moving her opponent around and using her superior fitness to romp home and seal a place in her first ever Grand Slam final.
There were two contrasting semi-finals in the Boys’ competition. Gilles Muller breezed through to the title match with a 6-3, 7-6 victory over qualifier, Philipp Petzschner. Muller, from Luxembourg, was a semi-finalst at the Australian Open junior tournament in January, went one better with his win over Petzschner. Muller will be up against Switzerland’s Roman Valent. Valent came through a nervy, hard fought encounter with this year’s Australian Open runner up Yeu-Tzuoo Wang 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Valent, who is an avid snowboarder, skateboarder and rollerblader, proved that he is no slouch on a tennis court either, coming from a set behind to reach his second final in as may weeks and give himself a chance at the biggest title of his career so far.
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