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| 26 May 2001 | |
| Italian Junior Open |
Despite losing later in the semi-final to Alejandro Falla, Algerian Lamine Ouahab, who trains with Ivan Molina and the ITF Development team, was the real hero of the day at the Italian Junior Open.
On Friday the African U18 champion, who has received support from his Olympic Committee for the last three years, was able to come back after three hours and ten minutes in a battle split over two days. Ouahab started his quarter-final match against Roman Valent (SUI) on Friday afternoon but was stopped for rain at 6-6 in third set. Despite losing the first set 0-6 the sixteen year old Algerian fought back step by step against his talented opponent. The turning point came at break point at 13-13, Ouahab just reached a dropshot in time to make a winning pass which clipped the net and then the line to give him the vital break. After three match points Ouahab eventually emerged the vitor 0-6 7-5 15-13.
The young Algerian's stars are definitely rising, last week he was called up to play Davis Cup for his country.
Ouahab had an hour and a half to recover from his epic match before meeting Alejandro Falla in the semi-final. However, it appears that his heroics got the better of him and Falla took full advantage to win in straight sets 6-1 6-3.
In the second semi-final on centre court in front of a large crowd, Gilles Muller (LUX) proved too good for Robin Soderling (SWE), who won the first set. With his big serve and excellent ground strokes Muller came back to win 5-7 6-2 6-2.
In the girls semi-final, No.15 seed Virag Nemeth (HUN) continued her impressive run. Coming from a set down in her last two matches against Ljubica Avramovic and Petra Cetkovska must have boosted her confidence for her match with Gisela Dulko (ARG). Nemeth caused a major upset allowing the No.2 seed only three games in the match to win 61 62. For Dulko this loss must be particulary frustrating as she lost at the same point last year to Ioana Gaspar.
In the second girls semi-final Angelique Widjaja (INA) was the first player in the tournament to manage to take a set from Kaia Kanepi (EST). Nevertheless Kanepi proved too strong and came back to win 63 36 62 to place her as the firm favourite for Sunday's final.
Boys
Semi-final: Muller (Lux) d. Soderling (Swe) 5-7 6-2 6-2; Falla (Col) d. Ouahab (Alg) 6-1 6-3.
Quarter-final: Ouahab (Alg) d. Valent (Svi) 0-6 7-5 15-13.
Girls
Semi-final: Kanepi (Est) d. Wiadjaja (Ina) 6-3 3-6 6-2; Nemeth (Hun) d. Dulko (Arg) 6-1 6-2.
Girls Doubles: Quarter-final: Kanepi/Voskoboeva (Est/Rus) d. Morello/Torres(Ita/Mex) 3-6 6-3 7-5.
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