 Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 24 Jan 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 24 Jan 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 24 Jan 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 24 Jan 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 24 Jan 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 24 Jan 2005 |
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| 24 Jan 2005 - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - Eleanor Preston | |
| Glatch Upsets Kerber On Opening Day |
The 2005 Australian Open junior tournament was barely two hours old before the USA’s Alex Glatch had recorded the first upset of the championships.
Glatch, 15, beat third-seeded German Angelique Gerber 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to make the second round.
“It was a very good win for me in a high quality match so I’m glad I got through,” said Glatch, who trains in Newport Beach, California and thus should have found herself at home in Melbourne’s hot dry conditions. “It’s actually been incredibly cold and wet over the last few weeks so I haven’t seen the sun much at home,” she countered, “but I came out to Australia a little bit early and having been here for two weeks I’m now pretty used to the heat.”
The quick conditions certainly worked to Glatch’s advantage against Gerber. “In fact the heat helps my serve a little bit because the courts definitely get a bit quicker when the temperature goes up and that benefits me.”
Despite being unseeded and unheralded going into the event, Glatch said she was full of confidence heading into to the contest. “I was pretty confident going into the match because she hadn’t had that many great results lately and I knew I had been playing well,” she said.
Having opened her account at the Australian Open, Glatch now plays Italy’s Sara Errani in the second round in the hope of getting her 2005 off to the perfect start. “You’ve just got to see how things happen but I would really love to get in the Top 20 girls’ rankings by the end of the season because there are so many great players and anyone in there is playing good tennis,” she said. “That’s definitely a goal I’ve set for myself."
There was no hint of an upset for the tournament’s top seed, Belarusian Viktoria Azarenka who allowed Ekaterina Shulaeva just three games in a 6-2, 6-1 rout. Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky, seeded two was also successful, along with fourth and fifth seeds, Ukrainian Olga Savchuk and Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei.
Croatian-born New Zealander Marina Erakovic may have enjoyed a straight sets 64 63 victory over Elizabeth Plotkin of the USA but the ninth seed admitted afterwards that it had been a far harder task than she made it look.
“It was actually a very tough match for the first round,” she said.”She was a good player, she’s kind of short and muscly and so she’s very, very strong. It looks like an easy scoreline but it was much harder than that.”
Erakovic now faces a grudge match against Australian Michelle Brycki, who thrashed fellow Aussie Megan Price 60 62.
There are a lot of Kiwis here so I’ve had a lot of support and I'm sure they’ll be watching me against Brycki, so I think there will be a bit of an edge.
In the boys’ draw fourth seed Robin Haase of the Netherlands beat Richard Ruckelshausen from Austria in three long sets to join top seed Sun-Yong Kim of Korea, American Donald Young, seeded two and No.3 seed Lucas Lacko of Slovakia in round two, while the only seeded casualty was Tim Smyczek of the USA, who lost to Bahamanian Ryan Sweeting 63 26 62
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