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| 04 Jul 2003 | |
| Tecau and Mergea double up at Wimbledon |
By Eleanor Preston
ITF World Junior Doubles Champions Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau are quite a team in doubles but Friday saw the Romanian duo prove that they can also be formidable forces in singles too.
Mergea scored one of the day’s biggest upsets, of which there were many, by knocking out top seed Tomas Berdych (CZE) 7-6 7-6 while Tecau’s quarter-final 6-4 6-7 6-1 win over the much-heralded American Brendan Evans was equally spectacular.
“We like playing doubles together,” said Tecau, “It’s good for the volley, good for the serve and the return and it gives you confidence.” Mergea, who is joint ITF World Junior Doubles Champion with Tecau, was quick to back his doubles partner up. “If you can return to half the court then it makes you realise how easy it is to return into the whole court.”
It was that confidence which Mergea says was the secret to his win over Berdych. “I had played him before so I knew what to do against him,” he said. “I had to be very tough and be ready on every ball and stay focussed and I knew if I did that I’d win. I never thought about losing, I only thought about winning.”
Mergea says he enjoys grass and says he knows what he needs to do to beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) in tomorrow’s semi-final.
“I have to make every shot and really make him play because we both have a chance,” he said. “I want to take mine.”
Tecau was equally bullish about the opportunity he has to beat Australia’s Chris Guccione in their last four clash. “I think the answer is to hold serve because he serves very well. I just need one break in each set. Today I did that and it worked, even though I lost the second set on a tiebreaker. I didn’t think about the score, I thought about the points and what I had to do. Whether it was 0-40 or 40-0 I played the same way.”
Guccione earned his place in the semis with a 7-6 7-5 victory over last month’s Roland Garros runner-up Brian Baker (USA). Guccione will be hoping to emulate his fellow countryman Mark Philippoussis by being a Grand Slam finalist and is bidding to keep the boys’ trophy in Australian hands by repeating Todd Reid’s win last year.
In the girls’ competition Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) pulled off another shock by knocking out top seed Sunitha Rao (USA), beating the American 6-3 6-2.
”Even in the knock-up I knew I was playing good,” said Flipkens. “I was so relaxed out there, there was background noise and I was singing along. Everything was so smooth until I got to 6-3, 5-2 up, 0-30, then I suddenly felt nervous. I had to concentrate and calm down again.”
Flipkens takes on Jarmila Gajdosova (SVK), who beat France’s Tatiana Golovin 5-7 6-1 6-3 in the semi-finals.
Flipkens’ win was rivalled as the day’s biggest upset by Anna Tchakvetadze’s 1-6 7-5 6-3 comeback victory over seventh seed Ally Baker, ending the winning streak the American started by winning the Roehampton warm-up event last week.
Tchakvetadze now takes on Finland’s Emma Laine in the last four. Laine, who also notched up impressive results at the Australian Open and at Roland Garros, proved that she is a player for all surfaces by causing yet another shock, beating another American No.2 seed Carly Gullickson 6-4 6-0 in the quarter-finals.
Laine says she feels very at home at Wimbledon since she has now visited London so much that she no longer feels the need to go sightseeing. “I have seen everything I think,” she smiled. “I came to Wimbledon to watch when I was younger and saw players like the Williams sisters and Pete Sampras on Centre Court and I did think ‘one day maybe I will play on there’ but I was so young and it didn’t seem possible. Now I think that it may happen one day.”
Photos by Susan Mullane
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