|
|
| 01 Jul 2002 | |
| Bogdanovic storms through to second round |
By Eleanor PrestonOn a rain hit day at Wimbledon, day two of the boys’ championships saw a return to normal service at SW19 with the seeds enjoying safe progress into the second round. There was one big shock in the girls’ draw though, when second seed Su-Wei Hsieh crashed out in the first round, beaten 6-4 6-3 by British qualifier Alice Barnes. With top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova sidelined, third seed Barbora Strycova is now the highest seed left in the draw.
Performance of the day went to the unstoppable ninth seed Alex Bogdanovic, who, buoyed by his home crowd, marched into round two with a blistering 6-0 6-0 win over Russian qualifier Artem Sitak. Bogdanovic, whose best result at junior level was a run to the semi-finals of the US Open last year, wasted little time in inflicting a rare ‘double bagel’.
Afterwards Bogdanovic was quick to give credit to his opponent despite the Russian’s disappointing performance. "The guy I played was a very good player but today he was a little bit inexperienced," said the 18-year-old Briton. "I think he was a bit nervous." Despite the problems Sitak was having, Bogdanovic showed no mercy on court, with his serve firing and his ground strokes proving too big and too heavy for the 16-year-old to cope with. "I just wanted to get finished as quickly as possible so I could focus on my next match," said Bodganovic.
The Briton, who was born in Belgrade but moved to the UK with his parents when he was eight, received a wild card into the main draw last week and took a set from seeded man Nicolas Escude, and said the experience has been a wonderful opportunity to learn. "It gave me a lot of confidence and it was good to learn. The guys in the main draw hit harder and serve bigger and they are stronger but the competition in the juniors is really tough too so I can’t get ahead of myself. I could be in the final or I could lose in the next round if I don’t knuckle down."
In other boys results Germany’s Philipp Petzschner, seeded eighth, moved smoothly through to the second round with a 6-4 7-5 win over Bas Van Der Valk. Australian Open boys’ champion Clement Morel had a battle on his hands against British qualifier Craig Evans but came through 7-6 3-6 6-3.
In the girls’ event Vera Douchevina, seeded eighth, came through against Sunitha Rao 6-3, 6-4 while Maria Sharapova came from a set down to beat Jarmila Gajdosova of Slovak Republic 3-6 6-2 6-2.
Rain delayed the remainder of the matches on a dull overcast day in SW19. With rain forecast for the next few days, patience may be in order for those left in the draw.
Photographs by Susan Mullane
^ Back to Top
|
