 Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 29 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 29 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 29 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 29 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 29 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 29 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 29 Jun 2004 |
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| 29 Jun 2004 - Wimbledon - Eleanor Preston | |
| Monfils stays gritty on the grass |
Top seed Gael Monfils sunk deep into his reserves of fighting spirit to pull out a 46 76 62 win against Morocco’s Mehdi Ziadi. The reigning Australian and French Open boys’ champion now faces Remko De Rijke of the Netherlands in the last 16.
Second seed Andrew Murray kept his home crowd happy with a 62 62 win over Alexander Nedovesov of the Ukraine. “I think I was a little bit nervous in my first match and I started off a bit tentatively but today I was much more relaxed on the court and I thought I played well. I’m just getting back to match fitness after a knee injury so this is only my sixth or seventh match in the last eight months. I think with each match I play I’ll get more and more relaxed and play better.”
Belgium’s Niels Desein scored the day’s biggest upset by beating rising US star Alex Kuznetsov 64 76. His reward will be a third round match-up against New Zealand William Ward, one of two Kiwis through to the last 16 along with his compatriot GD Jones.
Girls’ Australian Open finalist Nicole Vaidisova looked in commanding form as she romped through to the third round at Wimbledon on Tuesday. Czech–born Vaidisova made light work of British wildcard Claire Peterzan, winning 62 63 to set up a last 16 meeting with Russia’s Alla Kudryavtseva.
“I have been playing a lot in women’s tournaments since the Australian Open and that’s definitely an advantage coming into Wimbledon,” said Vaidisova, who trains in Florida. “No-one can ever say the juniors is easy but the women are tactically smarter and stronger and they don’t make so many mistakes, so I’m a much better player than I was six months ago. I have learned a lot from playing all those matches. I am picking which shots to hit much better than I used to.”
Wimbledon could be one of Vaidisova’s last junior tournaments and she says that has given her extras motivation to do well at SW19 and she doesn’t mind carrying the mantle of being amongst the favourites for the title. “It’s nice to hear that but you can’t focus on things like that,” said the level-headed 15-year-old. “You have to put compliments out of your mind because if you don’t then you’ll have no chance to win at all.”
Top seed Michael Krajicek of the Netherlands was in even more dominant form, breezing past fellow Dutch girl Nicole Thijssen 61 60 to earn herself a meeting with 15th seeded Russian Irina Kotkina.
Vaidisova and Krajicek may face stiff competition this week from Israel’s Shahar Peer, who beat Vaidisova in the Australian Open final. Peer was near flawless in her 63 62 demolition of Neha Uberoi of the USA and is now through to face Romania’s Agnes Szatmari in the last 16.
“It was a good win because she has been playing well lately and I haven’t had that many matches on grass but I was ready for her,” said Peer, who didn’t play last week in Roehampton. “A year ago I was still coming to terms with grass but now I feel very comfortable on it. People always told me I could play on it because I have grown up on fast hard-courts, which are similar, and now I know I can do better than last year, when I got to the third round here. Right now I feel I can win every match that I play.”
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