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Date: 04 Sep 2006 |
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| 05 Dec 2006 - ITF - James Harrisson | |
| Orange Bowl 2006 - Morita Crashes out on Day One |
Japanese World Number Three, Ayumi Morita, suffered a shock straight-sets defeat to Kai Chen Chang (TPE) in the first round of the 2006 Orange Bowl.
The pair faced each other for the third time in less than two months, with Morita having won in straight sets on both previous occasions. However, the top seed has a poor record at the Orange Bowl and has now won just one match in three visits to the last Grade A event of the year. On this occasion Chang got off to a perfect start and took the opening set 62 before Morita fought back in the second set to force a tiebreak. Chang, the world number 47 from Chinese Taipei, managed to hold her nerve and won the tiebreak 73 to secure an impressive win and set up a second round encounter with Croatian Petra Martic.
There were no other major upsets in the girls’ draw, as all the seeds made it safely through. Belarusian Ksenia Milevskaya, seeded two, was made to work hard against American wild card Jamie Hampton. The first two sets were shared but Milevskaya justified her current ranking of four by digging deep to take the deciding set and win the match 64 26 60. Other players through include third seed Sharon Fichman (CAN), who beat Chloe Jones (USA) 63 63, eighth seed Dominice Ripoll (GER), who beat Pavla Smidova (CZE) 64 64 and ninth seed Nikola Hofmanova (AUT) who went through following the retirement in the second set of her opponent Katerina Kramperova (CZE), with the score at 76(7) 21.
The biggest casualty of the boys draw was the Czech Republic’s Roman Jebavy. The sixth seed went a set to the good against wild card Will Spencer (USA) but was unable to keep the advantage. Spencer levelled the match and the pair matched each other throughout the third set until the American broke serve in the eleventh game to clinch victory 64 46 75. He now faces Ivan Endara from Ecuador in round two.
Seventh seeded Bolivian Jose Roberto Velasco will also be travelling home after his loss to another American wild card, Chase Buchanan. In a close contest the promising fifteen year old from Ohio showed character under pressure in the third set to win 75 26 64.
Reigning ITF Junior World Champion Donald Young made it safely through with a 63 62 victory over Romanian Dragos Mirtea. Georgui Roumenov (BUL), winner of the 2005 16 & Under title also got his 2006 Orange Bowl campaign off to a solid start, beating Harri Heliovaara (FIN) for the loss of just one game, 60 61.
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