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| 20 May 2003 | |
| Rain disrupts play on second day |
Rain disrupted play in Milan yesterday making the second day of the
the Italian Junior Open a long and frustrating one for many players.
Before the rain came, the
highest two remaining seeds in the boys’ draw continued their untroubled
progress. Spanish players Nicolas Almagro and Daniel Gimeno-Traver reached the
last 16 with comfortable wins; Almagro overpowering Yugoslav Viktor Troicki 63
60 and Gimeno-Traver coasting to a 64 62 victory over Konstantin Kravchuk of
Russia.
Their countryman, Guillermo
Alcaide-Justell, who has been competing well
in recent Junior tournaments in Europe, continued Spain’s 100% success
rate as he impressively eliminated fifth seed Leonardo Kirche of Brazil, thanks largely to his ‘rocket serve’,in a delayed first round encounter, winning 63 64.
In another match that was
postponed due to bad light on Monday, Katerina Bohmova, seeded 5, of the Czech
Republic duly took her place in round two of the girls’ singles with an easy 60
61 victory over Angelique Kerber of Germany.
Vera Douchevina wasted no
time in advancing to round three dismissing Iris Ichim, of USA, for the loss of
just two games, and will now face rising Belarussian player, Viktoriya
Azarenka, aged 13. Top seed Douchevina was quickly joined by Ukrainian fourth
seed, Viktoria Kutuzova, who conceded just one game to Italian wildcard
Verdiana Verardi; seventh seed Nadja Pavic who swept past Agnes Szatmari, of
Romania, 61 61 and Kirsten Flipkens, the Belgian doubles specialist, who
surprised No.8 seed, Evgenia Linetskaya, of Russia 63 62. Pavic will now face
Agnes Szavay, Grade 1 winner in Umag, Croatia last month, in the last 16.
Once the rain had cleared there were two more surprises in
the boys’ singles, Frenchman Julien Gely gained revenge for his defeat in Prato
last week, overcoming a terrible start, to beat Andrew Murray , of Great Britain,
who was seeded sixth, 06 76(4) 62. USA’s Alex Kuznetsov , who reached the final
of his last junior event at the Grade 2 Gerdau Cup in March, continued his
progress by beating No.7 seed, Frederico Gil , of Portugal, 64 61. Only six of
the original sixteen seeds now remain in the boys' event and just one Italian :
Andrea Arnaboldi beat compatriot Yari Natali 67(3) 61 63 to maintain home
interest.
The second and third seeds in the girls’ singles also made
the last 16 but were made to fight. Michaela Krajicek , of the Netherlands was pushed all the way
by Czech girl Nicole Vaidisova in a battle of the two fourteen-year-olds,
before the second seed won through 76(0) 46 64. Jarmila Gadjosova overcame a
0-3 deficit in the first set and survived break points at 2-3 in the second set
to overcome spirited resistance from Italian wildcard Alexia Virgili and win 75
63.
Please click here to see results from the tournament so far.
Photos courtesy of Francesco Panuzio
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