 Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 06 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 06 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 06 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 06 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 06 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 06 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 06 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 06 Jul 2007 |
|
| 06 Jul 2007 - Wimbledon - Eleanor Preston |  Related Audio |
| Fitzpatrick fights to final four |
 An Interview with Madison Brengle (MP3 format)
An Interview with Anna Fitzpatrick (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.
The sight of a British girl in a junior grand slam semifinal might raise a few eyebrows but not for Anna Fitzpatrick, who will take on Urszula Radwanska in the last four on Saturday to keep her hopes alive of becoming the first home girls’ Wimbledon champion since Annabel Croft in 1984. “Coming in, I knew that I could get a long way in the tournament. So, like, it's not a huge surprise to me,” said 18-year-old Fitzpatrick, from the city of Sheffield, in Northern England.
Australian Open girls’ runner-up Madison Brengle of the USA plays Poland’s Katarzyna Piter in the other girls’ semi-final. Top seed and junior Roland Garros champion Uladzimir Ignatik plays Lithuania’s Ricardas Barankis in the last four of the boys’; while American Donald Young faces Australia’s Greg Jones. Friday’s winners were forced to play two singles matches in one day to cope with the backlog of junior matches which disrupted when rain blighted the Championships earlier in the week and some of them had to play doubles as well. “I didn't realize this morning I was going to have to play two. When I found out, I was quite relaxed about it,” said Fitzpatrick. “I just went to calm down, spoke to my coaches. I was fine going on court. I was ready and prepared.”
Fitzpatrick trains at the famous Monte Carlo Country Club (which hosts an ATP Tour Masters Series event each spring and is a base for a number of top players, including women’s World No.1 Justine Henin) as part of a travelling academy based in the principality. She has been concentrating largely on the gritty world of the ITF women’s circuit this year and though she says she appreciates the chance to spend time in one of the world’s most glamorous locations, she is more focused on her work than on her surroundings when she is training there.
“Of course, there are nice aspects to it,” said Fitzpatrick. “The view and surroundings are unbelievable. But then when you're training there, it wouldn't make a difference where you are in the world, where you train. It's just on a tennis court, same as any tennis court in the world. Obviously it's nice when you come off court to have those surroundings, that atmosphere around you. It's kind of scheduled really well. We do like two week or three week training block with mostly physical work and a little bit of tennis on court to get strong, fit and fast. Then we go and do a block of tournaments. At the end of a block, we'll have maybe one or two weeks and rest where we go home and relax with our families and stuff, then basically start again with another physical block.”
She knows she will have her work cut out against Radwanska, whose elder sister Agnieszka won the Wimbledon girls’ title in 2005. Urzsula Radwanska was a 7-5, 6-1 quarterfinal winner over top seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the reigning ITF Junior World Champion. Piter beat Evgeniya Rodina of Russia, seeded three, 6-3, 6-1. Brengle needed a match tiebreaker to beat Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia 7-5, 3-6, 10-5. Ignatik, who is part of the ITF Touring Team, beat Gastao Elias of Portugal 6-3, 1-6, 10-3. Berankis, another Touring Team member, was a 6-2, 6-2 victor over Australian Open boys’ champion Brydan Klein of Australia; Young beat Dimitris Kleftakos of Germany 6-3, 1-6, 10-8 and Jones (who was runner up to Ignatik at Roland Garros) beat Matteo Trevisan of Italy 7-6, 6-2.
Related Articles
> Klein puts dampener on Damico
> British banish rainy day blues
> Sweet sixteen for Pavlyuchenkova
> Severe rain delays disrupt junior Wimbledon
> Juniors play waiting game as rain ruins day one
> Junior Wimbledon Preview
> Wimbledon Junior Championships - Information and Acceptance Lists
^ Back to Top
|
