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| 23 May 2003 | |
| Spanish Armada sails on |
The Spanish Armada continues
to sail through the boys’ draw as 2001 World Youth Cup teammates, Nicolas
Almagro and Daniel Gimeno-Traver both progressed to the semifinals in Milan today.
Almagro, in his first ITF Junior tournament this year, defeated
Germany’s Eric Scherer 62 63 while Gimeno-Traver eliminated Alex Kuznetsov of USA 75 63 for his 31st
successive victory in Junior Circuit play and remained on course for his 6th
tournament victory this year
Next up for Almagro, who
already has an ATP ranking of 336, is France’s Julien Gely, who has built on
his recent good form in Europe, to achieve the best result of his junior career
and who today defeated Croatia’s Vilim Visak 62 63.
Luis Flores, of Mexico, seeded nine, defeated Novak Djokovic, of
Yugoslavia 76 61 and will now play Gimeno-Traver, in a last four from which a
first-time Grade A winner is assured.
Katerina Bohmova, of the
Czech Republic upset the odds in the girls' singles as she defeated third
seed Jarmila Gadjosova of the Slovak Republic 64 75. After reaching the final
of her last three ITF Junior Circuit tournaments, Bohmova, seeded five, has
continued her good recent form here and has still to drop a set in her four
matches so far.
Her semifinal opponent will
be top seed Vera Douchevina, of Russia, who proved too good for her 14-year-old
opponent Agnes Szavay, of Hungary,
winning 62 64. The Orange Bowl and Wimbledon champion also seems to be rounding into
good form in what is her first ITF junior tournament of the year.
The other semifinal will
feature two highly-talented fourteen year olds. Michaela Krajicek, of the
Netherlands advanced when her Belgian opponent, Kirsten Flipkens was forced to
retire with a muscle strain when the score stood at 62 31 in Krajicek’s favour.
Krajicek is looking for her third tournament win in the last month and her
eighth of her career, which currently only spans 13 tournaments.
She goes on to face Viktoria
Kutuzova, of the Ukraine, who eased past Lithuania’s Aurelia Miseviciute 61 63,
in tomorrow’s semifinal. Kutuzova, absent from the junior circuit since
reaching the final of the Australian Juniors in January will certainly provide a tough
test for the Dutch youngster.
Photos courtesy of Francesco Panuzio
For updated results and
drawsheets from the tournament so far, please click here.
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