 Photographer: Eleanor Preston
Date: 10 Dec 2005 |  Photographer: Eleanor Preston
Date: 10 Dec 2005 | | | | |
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| 10 Dec 2005 - Key Biscayne, FL - Tim Curry | |
| No. 1 Seeds Young, Radwanska and Defending Champ Neilly Upset at OB |
Friday was a day of upsets at the 59th Annual Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships as No. 1 seeds Donald Young and Agniezska Radwanska and defending boys’ champion Timothy Neilly lost their quarterfinal matches at the Crandon Park Tennis Center in Key Biscayne.
No. 5 seed Neilly of Tampa, who was attempting to become the first repeat boys’ singles champion here since Billy Martin in 1973-74, fell to qualifier Paris Gemouchidis of Greece 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a hotly contested match that featured Neilly power against Gemouchidis tenacity.
“He was playing very well and was really aggressive the whole match,” said Gemouchidis, who also upset No. 3 Ryan Sweeting in the first round. “I just tried to stay in the match and open up the court on his forehand side because his backhand was too good.”
Gemouchidis broke Neilly’s serve in the opening game of the final set, but failed to covert on triple break point in two of Neilly’s next three service games. Neilly leveled the match at 4-all with a break of serve, but began to unravel. He doubled faulted to give Gemouchidis a 5-4 lead in the final set and lost the final game of the match at love with four consecutive forehand errors.
Gemouchidis will face Kevin Botti of France in the semifinals. Botti turned back Wil Spencer of Ponce de Leon, Fla., 7-6 (7), 7-5, in the only boys’ quarterfinal match that failed to go three sets.
Young, who lost to Neilly in an All-American final last year, failed in his bid to return to the finals, losing to No. 9 seed Robin Roshardt of Switzerland, 3-6, 6-1, 6-0.
“I was off at the start of the match I got more and more confident as the match went on,” said Roshardt. “The longer the points went, the better I liked my chances. By 3-0 in the third set, I felt the match was mine.”
Roshardt will face No. 14 Ivan Sergeyev of the Ukraine in the semifinals. Sergeyev ended the surprising run of Lucky Loser Daniel Lopez of Paraguay in the quarterfinals. Lopez lost his final match in the qualifying round, but gained entry into the main draw when a player withdrew prior to the start of the tournament.
In girls’ action, No. 8 seed Michael Buzarnescu upset Poland’s Radwanska easily in straight sets and will face Alexandra Dulgheru in an all-Romania semifinal. The winner of the Buzarnescu-Dulgheru match will become only the second player from Romania to reach the Orange Bowl girls’ 18s final (Edina Gallovits lost to Vera Zvonerava in the 2000 final). Dulgheru eliminated Ft. Lauderdale’s Courtney Clayton, the last American in the draw.
The other girls’ semifinal will pit Russia’s Alisa Kleybanova against Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki.
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