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| 12 Oct 2001 | |
| Osaka Mayor's Cup, World Super Junior Championships |
The big shock of the day was Marcos Baghdatis' defeat of top seed and world no.1 Gulles Muller. The players know each others game very well as they both train at the Bob Brett Academy near Paris and often travel together. Their last meeting was at the Asuncion Bowl, Paraguay in March when it took Muller three tough sets to overcome his friend. Today's encounter was another tense battle but Baghdatis coped better with the windy conditions and was able to recover from a break down in the deciding set to win 64 46 64. Baghdatis said after his match "The most critical moment was in the 3rd set when I was down 1-4. I decided just to play. I think the wind affected his game a bit". Baghdatis has enjoyed his first visit to Osaka "The crowds have been nice and everything is perfect. This is my first time in Osaka, it is another world for us Europeans"
There were no other upsets in the boys' singles, Yeu-Tzuoo Wang defeated unseeded Tomislav Hadzic 61 63 and will face Marcos Baghdatis tomorrow for the first time.
In the other half of the draw, the talented Barcelona based Algerian, Lamine Ouahab defeated Marko Miklo 62 62 to book his place in the semi-final against Janko Tipsarevic, who today had to work hard to overcome Adam Chadaj 63 36 75. Many talented player lie in the path of Tipsarevic before he can regain the no.1 position, only achievable by a win in the Final on Sunday.
The girls' quarter-finals went according to seedings, in the top half of the draw Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Su-Wei Hsieh 76(3) 63 and Eva Birnerova overcame Suzanna Babos 64 60, despite having to make adjustments to her game to cope with Babos' left-handed serve.
Virag Nemeth had the easiest match of the day, losing just one game to Slovakia's Kristina Czafikova 61 60. This was a strong performance from the Hungarian who has had mixed results since reaching the final of the Italian Open in May. Nemeth moves on from Japan to lead the Hungarian team in the NEC World Youth Cup in Santiago, Chile started on Tuesday 16th October.
Marion Bartoli extended her match winning streak to 10 wins with a straightforward victory over Matea Mezak 64 61. After the match Bartoli spoke about her love to all things Japanese "I love Japanese sushi and noodles and I often visit Japanese restaurants in my country. Last year I did some shopping in DENDEN town but I haven't had time yet this year".
Surprising when Kuznetsova takes on Birnerova and Nemeth faces Bartoli in tomorrow's semi-finals this will be the first meeting for both pairings. However, the final will be a different story and if the no. 1 and no. 2 seeds come through it will be a replay of the US Open final when Bartoli overcame Kuznetsova 46 63 64. The no. 1 ranking spot will also be up for grabs, if Bartoli and Kuznetsova do contest the final the winner will become no. 1 on Monday.
The Japanese players had mixed results in today's doubles semi-finals. The first time partnership of unseeded Mari Inoue (JPN) and Svetlana Kuznetsova had a relatively easy win over no. 1 seeds Eva Birnerova and Matea Mezak 63 62 and they will face the no. 2 seeds Chin-Wei Chan and Su-Wei Hsieh from Chinese Taipei in the final. Chan and Hsieh, who reached the final here last year, today overcame Kristina Czafikova and Andrea Hlavackova 64 62.
In the Boys' Doubles the no. 8 seeded Japanese pair, Go Soeda and Atsuo Ogawa found no. 5 seeds from Taipei, Ti Chen and Yeu-Tzuoo Wang to strong, losing 75 61. The final will be entirely a Chinese Taipei affair as in the other semi-final unseeded Kai-Lung Chang and Wang-Cheng Hsieh put an end to US title hopes in a tight 3 set match against no. 1 seeds Stephen Amritraj and Matthew Emery, winning 67(6) 64 64.
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