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| 23 May 2002 | |
| Banana Bowl Champion Baghdatis struggles into the third round |
Under cloudy skies four seeds were ousted from the Trofeo Bonfiglio on Wednesday.
In the boys' singles, Florida resident Chris Kwon (USA), seeded No. 11, was knocked out by Slovenian Anze Kapun 63 60, and No. 16 seed Bas Van Der Valk (NED) lost to Russian-born German Michail Zverev 62 61.
Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, who trains at the Bob Brett Tennis Academy near Paris, faced defeat in his match against Mexican qualifier Luis Flores. Every point mattered when Baghdatis found himself in a second set tiebreak having lost the first set. Experience prevailed and the Banana Bowl champion took the tiebreak 7-3, before closing out the match 36 76(3) 64.
Czech Tomas Berdych, seeded No. 14, also struggled in his match against the Kent-based Brit Robert Searle, before battling through to the third round 64 16 61.
Other seeded players posting straight set wins on Wednesday were No. 3 Marcel Felder (URU), No. 6 Lamine Ouahab (ALG), No. 8 Mathieu Montcourt (FRA) and No. 9 Steve Darcis (BEL).
The bottom half of the girls' draw took place on Wednesday. Lina Stanciute (LTU) put out 15 year-old Lucie Safarova (CZE), seeded No. 7, 62 63. Stanciute, who is ranked 87 places below Safarova on the ITF Junior World Rankings, will now face No. 10 seed Vera Douchevina (RUS), who eased past Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) 61 63.
One other seed fell in the girls' event on Wednesday, No. 9 Elise Tamaele (NED) going down 36 75 63 to Shadisha Robinson (USA). This win by Robinson brought welcome news to the US camp that had already seen all its other players eliminated.
Also moving through to the third round with straight set wins were No. 2 Barbora Strycova (CZE), No. 8 Zsuzsanna Babos (HUN), No. 13 Maria Kirilenko (RUS), No. 15 Elke Clijsters (BEL) and unseeded Jarmila Gajdosova (SVK).
All third round matches will take place on Thursday at the Tennis Club Milano.
Photographs by Francesco Panunzio
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