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| 21 May 2002 | |
| Top Seeds Breeze through to second round |
The Trofeo Bonfiglio got underway on Monday at the Tennis Club Milano, Italy. This year's players will be hoping to emulate the success of the prestigious list of past champions that includes Ivan Lendl, Goran Ivanisevic, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Hana Mandlikova and Gabriela Sabatini.
There were no first day casualties in the boys’ singles, which saw 15 of the seeded players begin their title campaigns. Top seed Brian Dabul showed no signs of fatigue following his win in Santa Croce on Sunday and he stormed through his match 62 61 against Italian Stefano De Angelis. Banana Bowl champion and No. 2 seed Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) barely broke a sweat in his match, overpowering Johann-Georg Fankhauser (AUT) 60 61.
Also back in action on the ITF Junior Circuit is Australian Open champion Clement Morel, who overcame American Josh Cohen 63 64. The only seed to struggle was Lamine Ouahab (MAR), who needed three sets to see off the talented Chilean Jorge Aguilar 26 64 62.
Elsewhere the popular Italian Alberto Brizzi saw his return from injury come to an abrupt halt at the hands of No. 8 seed Mathieu Montcourt (FRA) 62 64, and Santa Croce semifinalist Chris Guccione (AUS) was knocked out by Italian wild card Mirko Balestro 75 76(5).
In the girls' singles top seed Myriam Casanova started her campaign for a second Grade A title with a vengeance. Her unfortunate opponent was Marina Viliamovskaia (RUS) who didn't manage to take a game off the talented Swiss player. World No. 1 and Australian Open Champion, Barbora Strycova (CZE) also got off to a flying start, along with her compatriot, Santa Croce runner-up Petra Cetkovska.
Two seeds did fall, including No. 4 seed Cory-Ann Avants (USA), who had the misfortune to draw the fast improving Slovak Jarmila Gajdosova. The Bratislava resident already proved her worth on the Italian clay when she captured the Prato title and she felt equally at home in Milan, dismissing Avants 75 75. No. 12 seed Hanna Nooni (SWE) also fell on day one, losing to Casey Dell'Acqua (AUS) 62 63.
Photographs by Francesco Panunzio
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