 Photographer: None / Not Applicable
Date: 16 Mar 2006 |  Photographer: Aquiles Duarte
Date: 03 Jan 2006 |  Photographer: None / Not Applicable
Date: 16 Mar 2006 |  Photographer: Marcelo Ruschel
Date: 14 Mar 2006 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 26 Jan 2006 |  Photographer: Eleanor Preston
Date: 10 Dec 2005 |
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| 16 Mar 2006 - ITF - James Harrisson | |
| Mecir Tipped for Success |
World number 92 Miroslav Mecir caused an upset yesterday at the 36th Banana Bowl in Sao Paolo, beating fifth seed Emiliano Massa in three sets.
The son of one of the great names in world tennis, competing in his first international tournament outside of Europe, eventually overcame his Argentine opponent 36 63 63 to reach the third round of this year’s third Super Series event. His opponent in the last sixteen will present another tough test, although according to his elevated ranking, Mecir will go into the match as favourite to beat Brazilian Joao Souza who yesterday knocked out 11th seed Nathaniel Schnugg of the USA, 76 61.
Speaking about the effects having a famous father has on his tennis, the 18 year old Slovakian said “There are two sides to it. On one hand people go into a match respecting me because of my name. On the other hand everybody wants to beat me”. If Mecir continues in this rich vein of form he will certainly quickly become a major scalp on the Junior circuit.
Home-grown players Pedro Feitosa and Fernando Romboli, who both came through qualifying, had impressive second round wins and will meet today in the round of 16, giving Brazil at least one guaranteed quarterfinalist. Feitosa picked up an impressive victory over eighth seed Andrei Martin (SVK), 64 63, while Romboli beat Rasid Winklaar of the Netherlands Antilles 76 60.
Other seeded players eliminated on day three were third seed Nicolas Santos (BRA), who was knocked out of the competition by Italian Daniel Lopez in an enthralling encounter, which ended 61 16 61. Fourth seeded Venezuelan Roberto Maytin also bowed out to an Italian, Thomas Fabbiano, 76 64
Only five of the original sixteen seeded boys have made it through to the third round so the draw is still wide open. Top two seeds Petru Alexandru Luncanu (ROM) and Pavel Chekhov (RUS), ranked 9 and 14 respectively lead the field, followed at some distance by the Czech players Michal Konecny and Roman Jebavy. The failure of so many of the top players to make it past day three in this event makes Luncanu and Chekhov clear favourites to contest Sunday’s final.
The girls’ event has gone much more according to plan, with all of the top eight seeds making it through to the last 16. Top seed Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania made hard work of her second round match against Japanese Ai Yamamoto, eventually winning in three sets, 46 63 64, while Canada’s Sharon Fichman, seeded two, came through a tough second set to beat Brazilian Fernanda Hermenegildo, 62 75.
Julia Cohen (USA), winner of the grade A Casablanca Cup earlier this year and seeded three this week continued her campaign for another title with a convincing victory over Akari Inoue (JPN), 61 60.
Seeds who failed to flourish included Michaela Pochabova (9)(SVK), who lost 62 26 62 to Madison Brengle (USA) and Chelsey Gullickson (11)(USA) who lost to Melanie Klaffner (AUT), 75 63.
Check the ITF Juniors website for daily reports and photos.
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