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| 24 Jan 2001 | |
| Unseeded Aussie Goes Fishing in Stormy Weather |
By Kim Trengove
Unseeded Australian Christina Horiatopoulos took her fishing line to the Australian Junior Girls’ Championships today and extracted a prize catch. The unheralded 17-year-old from Sydney eliminated No.11 seed Monika Schneider from Poland 6-1, 6-3.
A devoted fisherwoman in her spare time because she says it "calms me down", Horiatopoulos reached her first junior Grand Slam third round with a minimum of fuss, her 59-minute stay on court extended by the first of many frustrating rain delays. "I just went in there confident and played the match as it came," said the strongly built serve-volleyer, who lists Steffi Graf and Boris Becker as her role models.
In the next round, Horiatopoulos will try to haul in another big fish, this time seventh seeded American Sunitha Rao, who beat Cynthia Goulet 6-0, 6-4. No.4 seed Ashley Harkleroad, No.5 Claudine Schaul, No.9 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 16 seed Su-Wei Hsieh, No.6 Sofia Ardvisson and No.13 Angelique Widjaja also advanced to the last 16 in straight sets, but elsewhere the seeds were struggling to hold their ground.
Girls’ No.2 seeded Marion Bartoli slipped behind 2-0 before toppling Monique Adamczak 6-3, 6-1 in a five-hour match that continued on and off all day as the clouds over Melbourne Park continued to cleanse the outdoor Rebound Ace courts.
"It was not easy," Bartoli said after her 29th straight victory. "She was playing good. I play on the baseline about one metre inside and she played good, she made some good forehands. But after, when I go to the net and play on her backhand, I play my own game and it’s okay." Bartoli is enamoured of the high-bouncing Rebound Ace surface. "It’s comfortable," she said. "A beautiful surface."
Top seed Jelena Jankovic dropped her first set to Chia-Jung Chuang and Australia’s No.1 teenager Samantha Stosur fought hard to even the score against Evgenia Subbotina. Eventually both prevailed, but not so No.8 Barbora Strycova who lost to Joanna Sakowicz from Poland, 6-3, 6-2. Jaslyn Hewitt flew to a 4-1 against American Beier Ko then completely lost her way, crashing 4-6, 1-6. This leaves only Horiatopolous and Stosur to keep Australia’s hopes afloat out of 21 local starters in the girls’ section.
With inclement weather holding up proceedings, boys’ matches resumed late in the afternoon. No.2 seed Roman Valent defeated Jason Zimmerman 6-1, 7-5, No.12 seed Robin Soderling ousted Germany’s Philipp Petschner and No.5 seed Yeu-Tzuoo Wang toppled Ryan Russell from Jamaica 7-5, 6-3. America has only one player left in the draw, No.4 seed Ytai Abougzir, who beat Christopher Guccione 6-3, 6-0. Abougzir, who was born in Israel but now lives in Florida, also likes the Rebound Ace courts. "The bounce is exactly the way I like it," he said. www.ausopen.org
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