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Sho Aida (JPN)
Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 26 Jan 2006
Sharon Fichman (CAN)
Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 26 Jan 2006
Ryan Bellamy (AUS)
Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 26 Jan 2006
Chelsey Gullickson (USA)
Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 26 Jan 2006
Austen Childs (NZL)
Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 26 Jan 2006
Raluca Olaru (ROM)
Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 26 Jan 2006
Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 26 Jan 2006
Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 26 Jan 2006
Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 25 Jan 2006
Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 26 Jan 2006
Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 25 Jan 2006
Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 25 Jan 2006
Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 24 Jan 2006
Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 24 Jan 2006
Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 27 Jun 2005
Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 24 Jan 2006
26 Jan 2006 - Melbourne Park - Eleanor Preston
Paszek Gets Ready To Turn Up The Heat On Wozniacki
Austria’s Tamira Paszek is looking forward to her quarterfinal showdown with top seed Caroline Wozniacki, a match which is arguably the pick of Friday’s prospective last eight clashes in the girls’ competition.

Both Wozniacki and Paszek spent most of Thursday indoors after Melbourne’s temperatures rose to the high 30s Celsius, forcing the tournament to implement the extreme heat rule and pushing all the afternoon’s junior doubles matches from the sweltering outside courts.

Paszek and her doubles partner Sorana-Mihaela Cirstea were due to take on Sharon Fichman and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova but instead Paszek was forced to kick up her heels and wait for a change in the weather.

“I really love the heat so it doesn’t worry me,” said the 15-year-old Austrian. “I love playing in it and I don’t mind practicing in it like I did today, when it was probably about 34 degrees out there at 11 o’clock in the morning. I spoke to my mum this morning and it’s -20 right now in Austria, so I’d rather be here than there. It’s always a shock when you get off the plane after being here because they open the door and you feel the cold air and you think ‘I want to turn around and go back to Australia!’”

She didn’t even mind waiting around for her doubles match and pointed out that, whether it’s the searing heat of Melbourne or the cool rain which often falls at Wimbledon, waiting around is all part of the junior grand slam experience.

“It’s a very good learning experience to have to sit around and wait, because it’s part of being a professional tennis player,” she said. “You have to learn when to eat, when to warm-up, how to get yourself ready for when they call you to play.”

While the heat postponed most of the doubles matches, there was still some singles action before the Australian summer really began to bite. Second seeded Romanian Raluca-Ioana Olaru eased through to the last eight with a 64 64 victory over American Chelsey Gullickson, as did Fichman, the tournament’s fifth seed in singles. The Canadian was too strong for Georgia’s Anna Tatishvili, beating the tenth seed 36 62 62 and will now take on Olaru.

Third seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovak Republic had a battle to grab her quarterfinal place, beating Alexandra Panova of Russia 61 46 61. She plays Pavlyuchenkova next. Ayumi Morita of Japan plays Amina Rakhim (KAZ) in the other girls’ quarterfinal match on Friday.

In the boys’ quarters, Australia’s Nick Lindahl and New Zealand’s Austen Childs will play a trans-Tasman battle for a place in the semis, while Pavel Chekhov finds himself up against unseeded Estonian Jaak Poldma. Japan’s Kei Nishikori takes on Alexandre Sidorenko of France and Australian wildcard Ryan Bellamy’s match against Croatia’s Luka Belic completes the quartet of boys’ quarterfinals.

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