 Photographer: None / Not Applicable
Date: 30 Dec 2003 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 02 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Aquiles Duarte
Date: 05 Jan 2004 |  Photographer: Francesco Panunzio
Date: 20 May 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 30 Jun 2004 |  Photographer: Francesco Panunzio
Date: 22 May 2004 |
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| 11 Oct 2004 - ITF - Neil Robinson & Will Fletcher | |
| Penultimate Grade A of 2004 Underway |
The 17th edition of the Osaka Mayor’s Cup World Super Junior Tennis Championships began on Monday in Osaka, Japan. Players are battling to put their names alongside such past winners as Marcelo Rios, Sebastian Grosjean, Amelie Mauresmo and Jelena Dokic in the penultimate Grade A tournament of the 2004 ITF Junior Circuit.
There is a strong possibility that the boys’ singles will see an Asian winner for the first time in ten years, as the continent provides the top three seeds. Sun-Yong Kim, of Korea, semifinalist in 2003, bids for his first Grade A title but will face stiff competition from his compatriot Woong-Sun Jun and Chu-Huan Yi, of Chinese Taipei. Another player in contention is Ukrainian Sergei Bubka will hope that he can repeat the form that carried him to the semifinals of the Italian Juniors in May.
On the opening day's play Kim, Yi and Bubka all enjoyed comfortable victories as did all the seeds in action. Seventh seed Takanobu Fujii was the single exception. The home country's leading hope made his fans suffer before completing a 64 46 63 triumph over compatriot Shuhei Uzawa.
The girls’ field is headed by Yung-Jan Chan, who was a quarterfinalist at this event last year. The Chinese Taipei player will be hoping to regain a position in the top five of the ITF Junior Rankings by again demonstrating the form she produced earlier this year when she took three Asian Grade 1 titles in a row. The one player who already has a Grade A title to her name is the American, Julia Cohen, winner of the Casablanca Cup in January.
Serbia and Montenegro’s Vojislava Lukic and Germany’s Angelique Kerber have shown the ability to beat the top players while Chan’s compatriot Wen-Hsin Hsu has performed well in Asian events this year.
All three of the above advanced although Lukic struggled to overcome Yurina Koshino, of Japan, 26 63 64. Two of the lower seeds bowed out on day one: thirteenth seed Punam Reddy, of India, was beaten 62 75 by American wildcard Emmy Fritz-Krockow while Slovak Barbara Pinterova, seeded 14, lost to Thailand's Nudnida Luangnam 63 63.
Day two saw the completion of the first round and no unexpected results in the singles events. Both girls’ top seeds, Chan and Cohen, looked in good form and advanced with ease in straight sets to the second round along with other seeded players Katerina Kramperova (CZE) and Stefanie Rath (AUT). All four seeded girls progressed at the expense of Japanese players who fought bravely but were ultimately outclassed. The second round continues tomorrow with no seeds due to meet each other until the third round.
The boys’ results on day two mirrored the girls’ in that all the seeds advanced without faltering, again at the expense of Japanese qualifiers. Today’s games saw Irishman, Tristan Farron-Mahon and Thailand’s Weerapat Doakmaiklee cruise into the second round while second seed, Woong-Sun Jun, let off a warning to his opponents as he sauntered into the next stage. The Korean no.2 conceded only one game as he blitzed Japan’s Kazuya Komada 60 61.
Tomorrow’s play opens with girls’ top seed, Chan (TPE), in action against Sweden’s Nadja Roma and features all the top seeds in their second round matches. There have been very few upsets in the singles events thus far with all the boys’ seeds still in the competition. However, with each field down to 32 players, and as the competition intensifies, it will be interesting to see how the favourites fair on day three.
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