 Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 19 Oct 2009 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 19 Oct 2009 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 19 Oct 2009 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 19 Oct 2009 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 19 Oct 2009 | |
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| 19 Oct 2009 - Marco Massetani | |
| Seeds start with wins in Osaka |
There were no surprises on the first day’s play at the Osaka Mayor’s Cup, the fourth Grade A event of the year after Casablanca Cup, Gerdau Cup and the Italian Open and one of the most important junior tournaments during the second half of the season.
Day 1 of the boys’ event saw the seeds starting with wins, with the exception of number 12 seed Zachary White from Canada, who was defeated 75 63 by Japan’s Kaichi Uchida. Second seeded Liang Chi Huang of Chinese Taipei had a 63, 61 victory over Indian Sai Kartik Nakireddi. In the first part of 2009 Huang claimed the title at Grade 1 ITF Junior Championship in Bangkok and was runner up at Asia’s Japan Open last March. He took advantage of a two-month training period with ITF coach Ivan Molina, and now he has reached fourth place in the ITF Junior Ranking playing very stable tennis on all surfaces.
Third seeded Pierre Hugues Herbert from France – who reached the semifinals at the US Open in September– had an emphatic 60 62 victory over Danish player Mads Engsted. In the top part of the draw n° 4 Japanese Shuichi Sekiguchi – winner in April at the Asian Closed Championship – came from behind to beat Yi-Lun Lin of Chinese Taipei 67(5) 62 60. Sixth seeded Slovak Filip Horansky began with an over-whelming 62 61 win against wild card Daiki Kondo from Japan and now he will face in the second round Australian Ben Wagland (64 63 over Indian Naveen Saai).
In the girls’ competition, top seeded Kristina Mladenovic from France had a demanding first round test against Katerina Popova from Russia. 16-year-old Mladenovic, one of the most talented players in the world (winner at Roland Garros and runner-up at Wimbledon, with good experience on the professional tour) had to face up to a long battle against the aggressive Russian player, losing the second set but winning the decisive one thanks to good service games: 64 67 (6) 62.
Canadian Open Champion, Japanese n° 4 Miyabi Inoue began with a 62 62 victory over Megane Bianco from Switzerland and sixth seeded Chinese Sai-sai Zheng went through to the second round after an easy 61 61 success over Japanese Mana Ayukawa. The 15-year-old seventh seed Polina Leykina from Russia, winner at the Mitsubishi Lancer in Manila, beat Australian Abbie Myers 63 62 and confirmed her season’s progress. In the bottom part of the draw, n° 10 Sachie Ishizu of Japan saw off Britain’s Amy Askew 60 61 and Danish n° 8 Mai Grage also had a two set victory over Indian Rashmi Teltumbde without losing a single game. Fifth seeded Casablanca Cup runner-up Ana Bogdan from Romania showed a promising result in the first round defeating Mateja Kraljevic from Switzerland 64 62.
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