 Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 31 Jan 2004 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 31 Jan 2004 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 31 Jan 2004 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 27 Jan 2004 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 31 Jan 2004 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 31 Jan 2004 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 31 Jan 2004 |  Photographer: Paul Zimmer
Date: 31 Jan 2004 |
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| 31 Jan 2004 - Melbourne Park, Australia - Eleanor Preston | |
| French friends face off in Australian Open final |
This year’s Australian Open is guaranteed a French champion after friends and room-mates Josselyn Ouanna and Gael Monfils burst through to the final in Melbourne.
Israel’s Shahar Peer and Czech Nicole Vaidisova will go head to head for the girls’ title.
Ouanna and Monfils have been sharing a hotel room since they arrived in Australia, just as they do at their training camp in Paris, where they practice together and are seldom seen apart. All that will be set aside on Sunday though when both will be fighting to win their first junior Grand Slam title.
“I’m very excited to be in a Grand Slam final and to be playing my friend there. It’s very cool,” said Monfils, who earned his final spot with a 6-2, 6-2 win over India’s Karan Rastogi. “It’s a bit different to be playing him but in a way it will be less pressure because I practice with him all the time and we’re very good friends. I know his weaknesses for sure but he also knows mine, so we will see.”
Ouanna said he was thrilled to have made the breakthrough into his first final and sounded a confident note after beating Novak Djokovic (SCG) 6-4, 6-4 in the semi-finals.
“Because it’s a Grand Slam final it will be strange to see him (Monfils) on the other side of the net but before and after we will be friends because everything else is just in the tennis court,” said Ouanna. “I dreamed to make a Grand Slam final in the seniors and I dreamed it in the juniors too. It was always an objective and now I am just one match away, I think I can make it.”
Vaidisova, who beat top seed Jarmila Gajdosova (SVK), was just as bullish on the eve of her title match against Peer, but admitted that she nearly didn’t make it to the final after suffering an attack of nerves at 4-1 up in the second set of her semi.
“I really choked at that point because I got nervous at the thought of being in a Grand Slam final,” said Vaidisova. “It’s good experience to come through that and I knew what to do. You are always going to get nervous but you just have to blow it out of your mind. It will be the same if I get nervous in the final. I really want to win tomorrow and to be a Grand Slam champion.”
Peer will not be an easy opponent though, especially since she won their last encounter, two weeks ago at the Uncle Toby’s Australian Hardcourt Championships, and also took the honours in their only previous match, at the Orange Bowl in December 2002.
“That win gives me confidence but it also means she’s the underdog,” said Peer. “Every day is a new day and you never know what can happen. Maybe she will play great and I can’t do anything. It’s Grand Slam final. Anything can happen.”
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