 Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 09 Oct 2007 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 09 Oct 2007 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 09 Oct 2007 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 09 Oct 2007 |  Photographer: None / Not Applicable
Date: 08 May 2007 | |
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| 09 Oct 2007 - Helen McFetridge | |
| Seeds safely through on Day 1 in Osaka |
The first day’s play at the Osaka Mayor’s Cup, Asia’s Grade A event, saw few shocks with all the top seeded players progressing comfortably.
In the boys’ event, last year’s runner-up Harri Heliovaara (FIN) had a straightforward 61 61 win over Faris Akhazzan of Great Britain. Heliovaara was forced to miss most of the 2007 season through injury and will be hoping that he can end his junior career on a high after a frustrating year. Top seeded Chilean Ricardo Urzua Rivera had a more difficult time with Japanese qualifier Takao Ohno, ranked 760 in the world, eventually coming through 64 75. Urzua Rivera has not been in his best form of late, having lost his first match in his last four tournaments, and he will want to rediscover the form that earned him two titles at the beginning of the year.
Two players who will be full of confidence after the recent Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas are Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE) and Mark Verryth (AUS), seeded six and seven respectively. Verryth did not lose so much as a set en route to helping his team to victory, while Yang had an equally good record until he ran into Verryth’s team-mate Bernard Tomic in the semi-finals. Both had straight sets wins today, Verryth overcoming Riki McLachlan (NZL) 75 62 and Yang defeating Yugo Inoue (JPN) 62 63.
The only boys’ seed to fall was number 12 David Goffin of Belgium, who lost in three sets to wild card Bo Seal (USA). This may not be such a big surprise as this is only Seal’s third tournament on the ITF Junior Circuit, with him having lost to eventual winner Ricardas Berankis at the US Open and world number one Uladzimir Ignatic in the third round in Kentucky.
The top seeds in the girls’ draw had it even easier than the boys, with the top four seeds only losing a combined total of six games. Top seed Nikola Hofmanova (AUT), a semi-finalist last year, beat Japan’s Mai Minokoshi 60 62 while number two Ksenia Lykina (RUS), who lost to Hofmanova in the quarters in 2006, dropped the same number of games to Minokoshi’s compatriot Minami Hashizume. Both Hofmanova and Lykina have won Grade 1 titles in Asia already this year, with Lykina taking the Japan Open in April. The Russian will be hoping to repeat the success in Osaka and claim her first Grade A title.
After several years in which Ayumi Morita has challenged for the title, this year Japanese hopes rest on fourth seed Kurumi Nara and fifth seed Misaki Doi. Both came through easily today, Nara dropping just one game to compatriot Hitomi Naito, a lucky loser, and Doi defeating Kotomi Takahata 61 64.
The three lowest seeds in the girls’ event all went out, number 14 Paula Ormaechea (ARG), number 15 Khunpak Issara (THA) and number 16 Andrea Konjuh (CRO) losing to Caroline Magnusson (SWE), Malou Ejdesgaard (DEN) and Chihiro Takayama (JPN) respectively.
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