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| 23 Jan 2002 | |
| Seeds tumble in the juniors |
By Eleanor Preston
Day three of the Australian Open junior tournament saw a string of major upsets in the boys’ event, with the top two seeds falling in the second round. Robin Soderling, seeded second, was the first big name to go out, beaten 64 75 by Australia’s Raphael Durek.
Robert Yim scored another sensation with his 06 62 61 win over top seed Brian Dabul. Yim, who hails from Pasedena, near Los Angeles, endured a miserable start but soon found the winning formula against Dabul. “At first I was nervous but then I started to play better,” said Yim. “I moved my feet a little more and then on everything kind of came together.” Yim and Dabul are old foes and despite feeling some butterflies in his stomach, Yim said he always believed he would find a way past the powerful Argentinean. “I’ve played Brian a few times before and I learned from those matches, so I knew I had a chance. I felt if I played well our games match up pretty well.”
Soderling and Dabul weren’t the only seeds to fall on Wednesday. Fourth seed Markos Baghdatis; Australia’s Ryan Henry, seeded fifteen; and fourteen seed Franco Ferreiro all made early exits. Baghdatis lost 64 76(2) to Russian hotshot Teimuraz Gabachvilli, while Henry went down 62 76(5) to France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Tsonga will meet Yim in round three in a battle of the giant killers.
Fifth seeded Briton Alex Bogdanovic narrowly avoided joining the list of seeded casualties, staging a remarkable comeback from a set and 2-5 down to beat Canada’s Frank Dancevic 36 76(4) 63. Bogdanovic was bothered by a wrist injury which saw him pull out of the boys’ doubles event as a precaution.
Bogdanovic will face Philipp Petzschner in the third round after the German battled past Michael Ryderstedt 63 57 75.
The girls’ competition finally began in earnest after two days of rain delays and results followed the form book, with top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova leading the charge with a 61 61 demolition of Adriana Szili.
Two of last year’s junior Grand Slam champions also got off to a flying start. 2001 Wimbledon champion Angelique Widjaja beat Britain’s Emily Webley-Smith 61 61 and last year’s US Open champion Marion Bartoli knocked out Megha Vakharia, beating the Indonesian 62 63.
No. 14 seed Tatiana Golovin from France took the first set in her match against Iryna Kuryanovich of Belarus 60. However Kuryanovich fought back against the youngest girl in the draw, taking the second set 64 from her opponent, who is aged 13 years, 350 days old. Golovin rallied in the third and powered her way past Kuryanovich to win 60 46 62.
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