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| 15 Mar 2002 | |
| Day Four - Thursday 14 March 2002 |
In contrast to the scalding 31 degrees heat of Wednesday, day four of the 32nd Banana Bowl was played under overcast skies.
In the boys' singles the big shock of the day was Lamine Ouahab's defeat at the hands of unseeded Chilean Jorge Aguilar 63 62. No. 2 seed Ouahab of Algeria - currently No. 4 on the Junior World Rankings - has been very successful on clay, winning four titles on the red stuff and reaching the semifinals of Roland Garros in 2001. This is the highest-ranked scalp Aguilar has claimed in his short career since making his ITF Junior Circuit debut in Colombia in January. He won the Grade 2 in Peru and reached the final on home soil in Chile, also a Grade 2 event.
Local hero Bruno Siqueira's run was ended by Horia Tecau of Romania. Siqueira could not find the answers against Tecau who is ranked 47 places above him at No. 115. The Romanian will now face top seed Brian Dabul (ARG) who wasted no time in dismissing Martin Stiegwardt (ECU) 62 60.
Unseeded Jamaican Dustin Brown put up a titanic fight against No. 5 seed Martin Vilarrubi (URU) but was overcome by the more experienced player 76(0) 46 75. No. 3 seed Marcel Felder (URU) extended his winning streak to 15 matches with a win over No. 15 Leonardo Tavares (POR) 62 36 62, and now faces the last standing Brazilian, No. 7. Seed Franco Ferreiro (BRA), who raced through to the quarterfinals with a 60 63 sweep against Robert Haybitell (AUS). Other matches went according to seeding with No. 4 Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) defeating No. 14 Chris Kwon (USA) 63 60 and No. 6 Steve Darcis (BEL) defeating No. 10. Brendan Evans (USA) 64 63.
There were surprises in the girls' singles too. No. 2 seed Virag Nemeth (HUN) has been struggling to regain the form that led her to the final of the Grade A in Japan and took the Hungarian team to the semifinals of the NEC World Youth Cup in the latter stages of last year. Nemeth was unable to find a reply to the less experienced Mariana Correa from Quito, Ecuador, and bowed out 64 26 64. Correa will now face 14 year-old Ana Ivanovic (YUG) who put an end to home hopes in the girls' event by defeating Marina Tavares 63 63.
The No. 3 seed also fell on day four. Petra Cetkovska was making her second visit to South America this year, the first being in January when she captured Grade 1 titles at Venezuela and Colombia, consequently entering the Banana Bowl on a 10-match winning streak. She was however overpowered by Galina Voskoboeva 63 36 61, the extremely tall Russian here returning to the Juniors Circuit after a break of seven months. Voskoboeva will now face No. 5 seed Myriam Casanova who defeated Ally Baker (USA) 63 67(3) 63 for her quarterfinal place.
In other matches, top seed Barbora Strycova (CZE) eased through 64 60 against the last remaining qualifier Carla Zabaleta (ARG). Next up for Strycova is No. 7 Nika Ozegovic (CRO) who defeated Jenni-Lee Heinser (USA) 62 63. No. 4 seed Maria Jose Argeri (ARG) defeated No. 15 Andrea Hlavackova (CZE) 64 26 62 and heading her way next is No. 6 Tatiana Golovin (FRA) who overcame Anastasia Sourkova (RUS) 60 75.
The latest results can be found on , www.bananabowl.netPhotographs by Luiz Doro
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