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| 12 Oct 2002 | |
| Baghdatis' dream comes to an end |
Top seed, Marcos Baghdatis was pushed out of the Osaka
Mayor’s Cup by 3rd seed
Gyorgy Balazs today. Balazs, who lost
to Baghdatis in the round of 16 in Osaka last year, exacted his revenge with a
straight sets win 64 76(0). This is a
big win for Balazs who is ranked some 34 places below Baghdatis who is
currently sitting at no. 2 in the ITF Junior World Rankings and is a strong
contender for the World Champions’ title.
Balazs will face local hero Go Soeda in tomorrow’s
final. Soeda today ousted no. 7 seed
Wang-Cheng Hsieh 64 64. Balazs and
Soeda have never played each other before and tomorrow’s final will probably be
decided by the player who holds their nerve on the big stage.
Japan’s interest in the girls’ singles lives on as today
Ryoko Fuda ended dreams of an all-Czech final by overcoming no. 2 seed Andrea
Hlavackova 62 46 63. Fuda will need all
her wits about her tomorrow when she takes on top seed Lucia Safarova who today
came through a terse battle against 14 year-old Sanja Ancic 75 64. Safarova has not played Fuda before but will
not only have to take on the underdog but a partisan crowd as well.
In the boys doubles final the title went to Brendan Evans
and Chris Kwon who defeated the no. 6 seeds Luke Campbell and Christopher Singh
63 64. The girls’ doubles title went to
no. 2 seeds Kristina Czafikova and Emma Laine, the Europeans beat Aussies
Daniella Dominikovic and Sophie Ferguson 62 60.
Photographs by Hiromasa Mano
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