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| 17 Dec 2000 | |
| Orange Bowl Draws To A Close |
Todor Enev waited six years for
this moment, and when it came it was sweet… as in Orange Bowl
sweet. At the 54th Ericsson
Orange
Bowl Championships, Enev won the Boys 18 title despite struggling through
the
first set with Bruno Soares of Brazil, 7-4, 6-4. The No.1 seed has been
playing
in the Orange Bowl since he was 13.
“This week I played
unbelievable,” said Enev, who made his way through each match of the
draw
in two sets. “I feel perfect…unbelievable. It couldn’t be
any
better than this. I gave everything to win this tournament.”
The turning point seemed to
come
with Enev leading 6-5 in the first set. Soares, serving 15-30, watched Enev
hit
a long forehand that the Brazilian argued was out. But Enev won the point
and
the match as Soares hit his next return into the net. Enev went 5-0 in the
second set before Soares could win a game.
“After that call, he
broke me
and I didn’t have it,” said Soares, who, like Enev, also played
in
the Sunshine Cup last week. “He really deserves it. I didn’t
have
enough left.”
Russian Vera Zvonareva played a
lob
game in the Girls 18s, frustrating Romanian Edina Gallovits on the way to a
7-6
(4), 6-4 win and the Orange Bowl title.
“It was my best
result,” said the 16-year old Zvonareva, who was the Orange Bowl 16s
runnerup a year ago. “She has good spin but it’s tough to hit
the
high ball. She wanted to play short points.”
“She played well today. I
couldn’t do anything,” said Gallovits, who turned 16 on the
first
day of the tournament but didn’t get the birthday gift had hoped for.
“Only when she plays me does she do the high balls.”
Gallovits, who won the Eddie
Herr
at the beginning of the month, is now 0-4 against Zvonareva..
No. 1 singles seed Aniko Kapros
of
Hungary got a consolation prize after losing in the singles semifinals to
Zvonareva Saturday. She teamed with Gisela Dulko of Argentina for the Girls
18s
doubles title with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Maria Eugenia Brito of Mexico and
Neyssa
Etienne of Haiti.
The
Boys 18 doubles was won by roommates and training partners Bruno Echagaray
and
Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico. They won a hard-fought match with Yugoslavians
Janko Tipsarevic and Darko Madarovski, 7-5, 2-6, 6-2. Echagaray had reached
the
Boys 18s semifinal in singles and Gonzalez the quarterfinals.
Orange Bowl Notes: Enev not only won the Eddie Herr
Trophy,
which is now awarded to the champions in the Boys and Girls 18s division,
but
also an Ericsson cell phone and a wild card into the Ericsson Open
qualifying
tournament in March…the match was the last junior tournament for both
Enev and Soares—both will be embarking on the pro tour fulltime next
year….Enev gave credit to a loud cheering section from Bulgaria as
one of
the factors for his success. The group was made up of tennis players in
town
for the Junior Orange Bowl playing in the 14s division.…Vera
Zvonareva is
the fourth Russian to win the Orange Bowl Girls 18s title in the last 10
years,
including Elena Likhovtseva in
1991, Anna Kourikova in 1995 and Elena Dementieva in 1998…the Girls
16s
doubles title was won in a walkover by Maria Jose Argeri of Argentina and
Mariana Correa of Ecuador. Their opponents, Hsiao-Han and Chia-Jung Chuang
of
Chinese Taipei, had an airplane reservation that couldn’t be
changed—unless they wanted to wait until Dec. 25 to travel
home…
!supportEmptyPar
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