 Photographer: None / Not Applicable
Date: 30 Dec 2003 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 22 Dec 2003 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 30 Dec 2003 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 22 Dec 2003 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 30 Dec 2003 |  Photographer: Aquiles Duarte
Date: 05 Jan 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 30 Dec 2003 |  Photographer: None / Not Applicable
Date: 18 Dec 2003 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 09 Oct 2002 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 22 Jan 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 22 Jan 2004 |
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| 22 Jan 2004 - ITF, London - Neil Robinson | |
| Juniors shape up for the first Grand Slam of the year |
Junior competition at the Australian Open gets underway on Monday 26th January. With many of last year’s leading players now too old to play on the Junior Circuit, it is always difficult to predict who will perform well at the first big occasion of the year.
Germany’s Sebastian Rieschick finished last year inside the top 10 but his results so far this year have been unimpressive. In contrast, his younger compatriot Mihail Zverev won last week’s Grade 2 Victorian Junior Championships and is still in contention for the Grade 1 Australian Hardcourts this week. Leading the opposition to the two Germans are Americans Brendan Evans, who reached the semifinals of the Orange Bowl in December and the last eight in Melbourne last year and Scott Oudsema, Junior World Doubles Champion in 2003. Josselin Ouanna and Gael Monfils will hope to continue the traditional good showing of the French boys at this tournament. Ouanna is so far making a successful defence of his 2002 Australian Hardcourts title while Monfils who reached the Orange Bowl final last year, advanced to the 2002 Australian Open quarterfinals.
Lachlan Ferguson will hope to provide some cheer for the Australian crowd at his home Grand Slam and it is also worth keeping an eye on recent Grade 1 title winners Remko de Rijke, of the Netherlands and the USA’s Scoville Jenkins.
Jarmila Gajdosova will be particularly eager to get through her first match in the girls’ singles as she has fallen at the first hurdle in her previous two tilts at the title. The Slovakian, who reached the semifinals of Junior Wimbledon last year, has been steadily progressing through the professional ranks but is keen to bag a big junior title. She will undoubtedly start as one of the favourites alongside Tatiana Golovin, of France. Russian-born Golovin, who turns 16 on Sunday 25th January, is probably the form choice as she has already progressed to the third round of the women’s singles after receiving a wildcard into the main draw.
The principal opposition will come from the Czech Republic pair of Veronika Chvojkova and Nicole Vaidisova, who between them wrapped up the final Grade A titles of 2003. Chvojkova, who won the Osaka Super Juniors title in Japan, is making her Grand Slam debut while Vaidisova, who captured the Orange Bowl in December is only 14 and has plenty more scope for improvement. Both girls have the ability to do well but will have to put aside their surprise defeats in the Australian Hardcourts this week.
Another fourteen-year-old, Timea Bacsinszky, of Switzerland, convincingly won the first warm-up tournament in Australia and has reached the semifinals this week and must be a threat to the more established names in the draw. Marina Erakovic, of New Zealand and Sanja Ancic, of Croatia both reached Grade 1 finals in Central America in the last month while Lara Giltinan leads Australian hopes.
Check out the daily reports and photos starting from Monday 26th Jan, live from Melbourne Park.
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