 Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 05 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 05 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 05 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 05 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 05 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 05 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 05 Jul 2007 |
|
| 05 Jul 2007 - Wimbledon - Eleanor Preston |  Related Audio |
| Klein puts dampener on Damico |
 An Interview with Brydan Klein (MP3 format)
 
If you cannot play the audio on your computer, then you can update your media player by following one of the links above.
Brydan Klein wants to add his name to the impressive roster of Australian Wimbledon champions and took a step nearer that goal with two gutsy tiebreak wins to make the quarter-finals of the boys’ competition at SW19.
With the junior tournament struggling to catch up in what has been the most disrupted Wimbledon for 25 years, Klein and many others were forced to play two matches in one day. Both of his went to a first-to-ten match tiebreaker, a special truncated third set decider brought in to speed things up and clear the backlog of junior matches. Klein, seeded ninth, beat Great Britain’s Joshua Milton 6-1, 3-6, 10-5 in the second round match and followed it up with an impressive 1-6, 6-3, 10-7 win over the USA’s Kellen Damico in the third round.
“I don’t mind the weather at the moment because I’m winning but it took me four days to play my first round,” said Klein, the reigning Australian Open junior champion. “I was pretty confident at first in that one but after four days I wasn’t so sure. I played really well and then luckily enough I got on and got a couple of matches one today. My coach told me whoever sticks to their routine, keeps it together mentally and stays relaxed is going to win the tiebreaker and basically that’s what you have to do. When I played the second one I was confident because the first tiebreaker had been a tight one but Damico also won his first match in a tiebreaker so I guess we were even going in. During it he broke down a bit and gave me a chance.”
The win over Damico avenged Klein’s defeat to the same player at the same stage of Roland Garros a few weeks ago. “He’s a very, very tough round of sixteen,” said Klein. “I played him in the round of sixteen at the French Open as well and lost in a tight match that I could have won if I hadn’t lost it a bit mentally; so I really wanted to come out and do better because I didn’t want to give away another match to the same guy from losing my head. I tried to keep my head and instead he lost it a bit.”
If Klein feels at home at Wimbledon it is hardly a surprise. Not only does Australia boast a string of former Wimbledon champions but Klein’s home state of Western Australia has more grass courts than anywhere else in Australia, including the one at Klein’s house. “I’ve grown up on grass and I like the grass courts a lot,” said Klein, who would follow in the recent footsteps of Australian 2002 boys’ champion Todd Reid were he to win the title. “It definitely is an advantage. I feel the European countries, some of their players struggle on the grass so it helps us out a lot but I guess it’s about who plays their game the best on the day on the surface.”
Klein was joined in the quarter-finals by Roland Garros champion Uladzimir Ignatik who managed to complete his two matches over Mateusz Kecki and Thomas Fabbiano today to progress
In girls’ results, Czech Republic’s Katerina Vankova upset fifth seed Nikola Hofmanova 6-1, 6-7, 10-6 in their second round match while Great Britain’s Anna Fitzpatrick took a notable scalp when she beat fourth-seeded Belarussian Ksenia Milevskaya 6-4, 6-4.
^ Back to Top
|
