 Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 03 Sep 2007 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 05 Jul 2007 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 07 Sep 2007 |  Photographer: Corinne Dubreuil
Date: 23 Jan 2007 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 04 Jun 2007 |  Photographer: None / Not Applicable
Date: 20 Mar 2007 |
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| 04 Dec 2007 - Helen McFetridge | |
| American wild cards cause upsets at Orange Bowl |
The first day of this year’s Orange Bowl was a good one for American wild cards as Chase Buchanan in the boys’ singles and Alison Riske in the girls’ both ousted seeds.
16-year-old Buchanan knocked world number two Ricardas Berankis (LTU) out of the Eddie Herr Championships last week on his way to the quarter-finals, and he took his good form into his first round encounter with 10th seed Cesar Ramirez (MEX). Ramirez never got into the match as Buchanan swept to a 60 63 victory.
Buchanan’s win was not the biggest upset of the day in the boys’ singles, however, as third seed Roman Jebavy (CZE) was beaten in three sets by Russian Alexei Grigorov. All the other boys’ seeds in action came through, although several had to struggle including 14th seed Jarmere Jenkins (USA). Jenkins needed a third set tie-break to get past Croatia’s Silvio Dadic. Jenkins’s fellow American Ryan Noble, a wild card ranked 793 in the world, almost caused a huge shock when he took the first set against John Patrick Smith (AUS), but the fifth seed held on to win 64 in the third. Seventh seed Henrique Cunha (BRA) featured in one of the longest matches of the day as he eventually outlasted Luka Somen (CRO) 67 76 75.
Top seed Uladzimir Ignatik (BLR), aiming to clinch the year end number one ranking at this tournament, got his campaign off to a smooth start by beating El Salvador’s Marcelo Arevalo Gonzalez 63 61. Second seed Ricardas Berankis, who still has a mathematical chance of stealing the top spot, plays his first round match today.
Two seeds were beaten yesterday in the girls’ singles, in both cases at the hands of American players. 12th seed Simona Halep (ROU) was a semi-finalist at the Eddie Herr last week and as such would have been confident about her chances at the Orange Bowl, particularly against an opponent playing in just her third ITF junior tournament. However, Riske dominated the match from the outset and ended up a 63 62 winner.
The scoreline was identical in the other upset of the day as Riske’s compatriot Lauren McHale knocked out 11th seed Katarzyna Piter. Like Halep, Piter was coming off an impressive Eddie Herr campaign, the Pole having reached the final. But also like Halep, she was powerless to stop her American opponent as McHale eased her way into round two.
Another American wild card off to a good start is Ashley Weinhold, who had an emphatic 60 61 win over Jeannine Prentner (AUT). Top seed Urszula Radwnaska (POL) and number two Nikola Hofmanova (AUT) also had easy wins over Yana Buchina (RUS) and Alexa Guarachi (USA) respectively.
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