 Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 14 Oct 2005 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 14 Oct 2005 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 14 Oct 2005 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 14 Oct 2005 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 12 Oct 2005 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 12 Oct 2005 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 12 Oct 2005 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 12 Oct 2005 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 12 Oct 2005 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 12 Oct 2005 |
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| 14 Oct 2005 - Will Fletcher | |
| Japanese Juniors Eye Osaka Mayor’s Cup |
At the beginning of the week all eyes focused on the top two boys seeds as there was much talk about the probable final match up of Jeremy Chardy of France and Croatia’s Marin Cilic, as both make a last ditch effort to catch current World No.1 Donald Young (USA) and be crowned Junior World Champion in the New Year. If there was any mention of Japanese players it was probably due to their sheer number as 34 boys and 46 girls from Japan stepped onto court for the first round of the maindraw.
The players stuck to the script once again today at the Utsubo Tennis Centre as both Chardy and Cilic advanced to the last four. The Roland Garros Champion from Croatia faced his toughest test of the week against the fifth seeded Australian James Lemke but the result was never in doubt as the big hitter from Zagreb won comfortably 63 64. Surprisingly Chardy, this year’s Wimbledon Champion and US Open finalist, had a much tougher workout against the last unseeded player in the draw, Yuichi Sugita from Japan. If the top seed was not rattled, he was certainly forced to reassert himself after going one set down in order to overcome his opponent (46 64 75) ranked a modest 161 in the world.
However, while Chardy and Cilic have been stealing the headlines, the Japanese pair of Kei Nishikori and Sho Aida have progressed methodically to meet them in the semifinals. Nishikori, a promising member of the Nick Bolletieri academy in Florida, played well to knock out third seed Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan of India 62 64 while Aida accounted for Jason Jung of USA 75 63. One would presume that this is as far as these players will progress with two giants of the Junior game obstructing their route to the final. However, tomorrow there is an opportunity for these two players to take a major scalp and be just one match from the most prestigious trophy in Japanese Junior tennis. At the very least this provides a chance to play without pressure and regain some ground on the top players, particularly for fifteen year old Nishikori who was beaten by Chardy 75 61 in the third round of US Open.
Although Nishikori and Aida will be driven by their home support, it would be naïve to believe that Chardy and Cilic will be complacent. Both have travelled to Japan focused on gaining valuable ranking points at the penultimate Grade A of the year in a final attempt to catch the US prodigy Donald Young in the Combined Junior rankings. They have even joined forces in the doubles competition to earn as many points as possible and squeezed through their semifinal by defeating the Japanese duo of Hsin-Han Lee and Hsien Yin Peng 76(4) 75 earlier today. In tomorrow’s final they will take on the Czech pair of Roman Jebavy and Jiri Kosler who are fresh from their recent Junior Davis Cup final campaign in Barcelona where they played well to finish runners up to France.
Ayumi Morita has matched the Japanese boys’ feat by beating New Zealand’s Ellen Barry 64 63 for a place in tomorrow’s girls’ singles semifinals. She will play defending Champion Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark who drifted during her match against Maria Mosolova but came back emphatically to win 75 16 61. In the top half of the draw the current World No.1 continued on her unwavering pursuit of yet another title. This time home favourite Erika Sema experienced the brunt of Viktoria Azarenka’s all out attack going down promptly 61 61. As expected the Belarusian will face Romania’s Raluca Olaru for a place in the final after the third seed defeated Hong Kong’s Wing-Yau Venise Chan 76(5) 60.
The girls doubles final will be a celebration of Japanese tennis as second seeds Morita and Sema take on the unseeded pair of Akari Inoue and Yurina Koshino tomorrow.
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