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| 23 Jan 2001 | |
| Maid Marion Continues Winning Ways |
By Kim Trengove
With Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski out of the main draw, Great Britain drew comfort from the strong first round performances of five junior players. Today, Alice Barnes tried to join her compatriots in the second round but had few answers against the current crown princess of the courts, Marion Bartoli. The 16-year-old French girl sent Alice into Wonderland and beyond with a 6-0, 6-4 victory.
It was the most convincing performance of the day for the No.2 seed, winner of the last three tournaments she has played and elevated to a higher seeding in Melbourne than Slovakian Lenka Dlhopolcova, who currently holds a world junior ranking of 10 while Bartoli sits on the 19th rung. Hitting with two hands off both sides, Bartoli may have a tougher second round if Sydney teenager Monique Adamczak can continue the form that carried her to a 6-3, 6-2 win over Maria De Lourdes Lopez of Mexico. Adamczak played with great tenacity and variety throughout her match, hitting 25 winners to Lopez’s mere three.
There were no upsets in the girls’ tournament, although No.6 seed Sophia Arvidsson, No.12 Petra Cetkovska and No.14 Angelique Widjaja needed three sets to surpass their Australian opponents, Nicole Kriz, Rebecca Pike and Darya Ivanov.
The second round of the boys’ draw also proceeded without a hiccup, although top-seeded Janco Tipsarevic from Yugoslavia had a healthy workout against Croatia’s Sasa Tuksar, winning 7-6, 6-4. He will meet Australia’s No.1 junior Todd Reid in the third round. The 16-year-old Reid from Sydney’s beachside suburb, Coogee, is in a hurry to make a big splash in tennis, spurred on by the deeds of fellow Aussie Lleyton Hewitt, who won his first pro tournament in Adelaide at the same age.
Today, Reid came from a set down to beat No.2 Australian junior and doubles partner Adam Kennedy 1-6, 6-2, 7-5. Understandably, there was plenty of Lleyton-like ‘C’mons’ throughout the encounter as Reid recovered from a jittery start. Aussie Raphael Durek was in action against another local lad, wildcard Clint Letcher. Buoyed by his first round upset over No.3 seed Yen-Hsun Lu yesterday, Durek committed a mere 11 unforced errors in his 6-3, 6-2 win over Letcher. His next opponent is No.15 seed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, who beat German qualifier Markus Dickhardt 6-3, 6-2.
No.7 seed Luciano Vitullo from Argentina moved into the third round after knocking out Briton Richard Bloomfield 7-5, 6-3. He will face Italian Thomas Holzer, who rallied from a set down to topple Swedish junior Eric Klasson 2-6, 6-1, 7-5. No.10 seed Santiago Gonzalez has a date with No.6 Simon Stadler next up, although German Stadler had a longer stay on court today struggling past Stephane Bohli 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Full Results can be found at www.ausopen.org
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