 Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 01 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 01 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 01 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 01 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 01 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 01 Jun 2004 |
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| 01 Jun 2004 - Roland Garros, Paris - Eleanor Preston | |
| Patience Pays Off For Gojnea |
Few players in the junior locker room were as anxious for Roland Garros to get underway as Romanian Madalina Gojnea, who earned herself a place in the third round with a 63 62 win over Olga Savchuk of the Ukraine.
“All year I was waiting for this tournament,” she said. “I made the semis here a year ago and I lost a match I should have won against Anna-Lena Groenefeld. It was a good experience and I learned a lot from that match but it has made me very hungry to come back because I want to do better.”
You can’t fault Gojnea’s timing either – she wrapped up her match against Savchuk within minutes of one of the many downpours which swamped Tuesday’s play in the French capital.
”I was so lucky because the weather was very bad – it was more like Wimbledon,” she laughed. “We had to warm up three times with the rain before the match so I can’t believe we got finished in time.”
The ease of Gojnea’s win was a surprise even to her, particularly since when the pair played last week it took three sets to finish off Savchuk. “That finished 6-4 in the third after I had to fight from 1-5 down so I was all set for a really long match,” she said. “It was a big relief to get past her. There was a lot I learned in that match which I could use today, just things that I found out she didn’t like so it was useful for me.”
Gojnea trains in Bucharest with her brother Eugen and says she has him to thanks for her fitness. “He is very tough on me, much tougher than a coach would be because he knows what I can do. He’s been coaching me for a long time and at first it’s like we were learning together.”
Gojnea now faces Alla Kudryavtseva for a place in the quarters after the Russian beat Krysty Marcio of the USA 6-4, 7-5.
Also in the girls’ draw, Australian Open champion Shahar Peer was forced to battle through three tough sets before defeating Russian Regina Kulikova 6-2, 2-6, 6-2.Michaella Krajicek, of the Netherlands, also had to fight for her win before beating 5-7, 7-6, 6-2 while Katerina Bondarenko (UKR), Timea Bacsinszky (SUI) and Viktoria Azarenka of (BLR) all scored wins.
In the boys’ competition French favourites Gael Monfils and Josselin Ouanna both made untroubled progress past the second round. Ouanna came through a potentially tricky draw against Bruno Rosa, of Brazil, unscathed, winning 6-4, 6-0, while Monfils was too strong for Mykyta Kryvonos, beating the American 6-2, 6-3.
Monfils and Ouanna both train at Roland Garros but Monfils says playing in your own backyard can be something of a double-edged sword.
“There are advantages because I have my friends and family but it is a little bit of pressure because it makes me want to win so badly,” he said. “I talked about it a lot with my coach before the tournament and before the match because there is the pressure is always there but he told me to do my best and just think about the ball - if I lose, I lose and that’s ok because you don’t know how you are going to feel. It really helped me to relax a lot and I hope I stay that way. "
American seed Alex Kuznetsov joined compatriot Scoville Jenkins in the third round, while another American, Brendan Evans, moved into the third round with his win over Martin Fischer of Austria. Lukas Lacko of Slovakia is also into round three following his three-set victory over El Salvador’s Rafael Arevalo.
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> Day Two Round-Up
> Day One Round-Up
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