 Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 03 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 03 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 03 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 03 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 03 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 03 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 03 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 03 Jun 2004 |
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| 03 Jun 2004 - Paris - Eleanor Preston | |
| Bacsinszky bowls Krajicek over |
There was no mistaking how happy Timea Bacsinszky was to find herself in the semifinals of Roland Garros. After beating last year’s US Open finalist Michaella Krajicek 63 26 86, Bacsinszky fell on her back and rolled over on the court, covering herself in the thick, red, Parisian clay.
It was an epic win for the Swiss, who now takes on Madalina Gojnea of Romania in the last four. She coped with Krajicek’s fluctuating form on the other side of the net and her mind proved stronger when the match reached the tense latter stages of the final set. She mustered two match-points on the Krajicek serve at 7-6 and took the second with a clean volleyed winner.
Ukrainian Katerina Bondarenko caused the other major quarterfinal upset, knocking out the reigning Australian Open girls’ champion Shahar Peer 75 63. She now has the unenviable task of trying to get past top seed Bulgarian Sesil Karantcheva, who has been playing up a storm during this year’s championships and has yet to drop a set, today she saw off Elena Vesnina of Russia 63 61.
Brendan Evans and Alex Kuznetsov will play an all-American semifinal in the boys’ tournament after both scored emphatic wins in the last eight. Evans was much too strong for Lukas Lacko, beating the Slovakian 64 62, while Kuznetsov scored a big 75 64 win over his German doubles partner Mihail Zverev.
France’s Gael Monfils continued his smooth progress at his home Grand Slam by dismissing Italy’s Fabio Fognini 61 61 and will be a difficult proposition for Kamil Capkovic of Slovakia, who beat Spain’s Pablo Andujar 16 75 62.
His run at Roland Garros marks Evans’ best ever Grand Slam performance and he credits much of his improvement to his new coaching relationship with Tariq Benhabiles, the man who oversaw the development of last year’s ITF World Champion Andy Roddick. Evans and Benhabiles have been working together for three months, and Evans, who also receives help from former pro Marcos Ondruska, says he is already feeling the benefits.
“Tariq has shown me so much in just three months,” he said. “My game has changed totally and there is just no comparison with the way I was playing before. When we heard he was free my Dad rang him straight away.”
Evans drives an hour every day from his home in Key Biscayne to train all day with Benhabiles in Boca Raton. “It’s not the greatest and I get pretty tired but when you get to work with a guy like Tariq it’s worth pulling out all the stops.
“We talk about Andy (Roddick) a lot even though Tariq really doesn’t want to talk about him too much, but he was an average junior with a low ranking when they started working together and Tariq took him all the way to the top.”
Under Benhabiles tutelage, Evans has been making a big push during the clay court season and has been in Europe for the last six weeks in preparation for Roland Garros. “Last year I showed up a week before the tournament started and this time I wanted to be out here grinding it out with these guys on clay courts. When I first started playing on it I really didn’t know how to play on it but that’s not the case any more and it’s really made me feel really tough because I’ve had 15 or 16 matches and I feel so much more confident. I want to be considered as a guy who can play on clay.”
That spells bad news for Kuznetsov, who, like Evans in based in Florida. “He’s a really good player and he’s had a lot of good results,” he said. “I’ve seen him play, I’ve practiced with him a lot and so I’ll be prepared.”
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