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| 05 Sep 2002 | |
| Rising US stars take home advantage |
By Eleanor Preston
Bright sunny skies and soaring temperatures at Flushing Meadows saw the action hot up in the US Open junior competition as some of America’s up and coming girls took their turn in the spotlight.
Carly Gullickson notched up the upset of the day with an overwhelming 6-1, 6-2 victory over Russia’s Anna Bastrikova. The 13th seed was powerless to stop 15-year-old Gullickson. Atlanta based Tanner Cochran also scored a comfortable win, breezing past Katerina Bohmova to set up a third round clash against Tatiana Golovin. Golovin skipped past Shadisha Robinson 6-1, 6-4.
"I felt good today, much better than yesterday," said Cochran, "Yesterday I felt like I came out pretty slow, I wasn’t moving well, wasn’t warmed up and today I made sure I was ready. I was moving well from the first point and I really think my movement had the most to do with me playing better today." Cochran has never played Golovin before but she knows that the French girl presents a tough proposition even though Cochran says she feels very much at home at Flushing Meadows. She played the main draw qualifying event and has been in New York for two weeks practicing on the quick hard courts. "I’ve got very used to the courts here and that definitely gives me an advantage in the early rounds of the juniors," said Cochran. "I’ve been here so long I feel like I live here!"
Florida native Shenay Perry and North Carolina’s Ally Baker both joined Cochran in the last 16 as did top seed Barbora Strycova, who beat Hungary’s Zsuzsanna Babos 6-3, 6-4. There was bad news for Jamea Jackson though, she was forced to retire during her match against Salome Devidze after cramping in both legs.
In the boys’ event Florin Mergea took a notable scalp when he knocked out twelfth seed Marcel Felder, beating the Uruguayan 6-1, 6-1. Richard Gasquet wasted little time in beating American qualifier John Isner 6-2, 6-4 but the boys’ No.1 seed is still struggling with a back injury which is affecting his form. Aussie Chris Guccione’s could not match the form that brought him victory over Australian Open Champion, Clement Morel late Tuesday night. Today he bowed out to Markus Bayer 6-2, 6-4.
No.2 seed Robin Soderling came through a tricky second round encounter with Yordan Kanev, beating the Bulgarian 6-3, 6-2 and afterwards pronouncing himself delighted with his performance. "It was a tough draw but then a lot of matches here are tough," he said. "Actually I played very well. In the first set I served very well and that makes a big difference especially with the courts being fast."
Soderling says playing his last junior Grand Slam in New York has given him extra motivation for winning. "I’ve been playing some men’s events and I’ve been doing pretty well but I’m playing here because I never won a junior Grand Slam and this is my last chance. I want to give it a good try," he said.
Photographs by Susan Mullane
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