 Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 21 Oct 2009 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 21 Oct 2009 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 21 Oct 2009 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 21 Oct 2009 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 21 Oct 2009 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 21 Oct 2009 |
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| 21 Oct 2009 - Marco Massetani | |
| Mladenovic in superb form at Osaka Mayor's Cup |
Many of the tournament favourites continued not to disappoint at the Osaka Mayor’s Cup as they easily reached the third round of the prestigious Asian Grade A event.
On centre court, top seeded world n° 2 Kristina Mladenovic from France was in superb form in beating Japanese Makoto Ninomiya with a straight sets victory 63 60. The 16-year-old Mladenovic, who won the junior title in Paris this year, also reached the semi-finals of the $100,000 tournament in Cagnes-Sur-Mer last May. She will next play the 16th seed, home player Risa Ozaki, who defeated Great Britain’s Lucy Brown by the same score.
In the top half of the girl’s draw, ninth seeded 15-year-old Tamara Curovic from Serbia eased safely through with a 61 63 victory over Japanese wild card Mai Minokoshi. 11th seed Fatma Al Nabhani from Oman overcame Miho Kowase from Japan 61 26 63 and sixth seed Saisai Zheng from China, who has four titles to her name this year and was a finalist in Kentucky last September, cruised past another Japanese, wild card Chihiro Nunome, 64 63. However, as well as Ozaki, six other Japanese junior players – Miyabi Inoue, Rio Kitagawa, Eri Hozumi, Sachie Ishizu, Akiko Omae and Emi Mutaguchi - were able to move through to the third round of the competition.
N° 4 Canadian Open Champion Inoue enjoyed a straight sets 62 63 victory over compatriot wild card Miharu Imanishi while Rio Kitagawa and Eri Hozumi upset 14th seed Ting Fei Juan from Taipei 61 76 (4) and seventh seeded Russian Polina Leykina 63 64 respectively. Tenth seed Sachie Ishizu conceded just two games to Aminat Kushkhova, winning 61 61, and n° 12 Emi Mutaguchi beat France’s Amandine Hesse 76(2) 63 after a two set battle. Akiko Omae scored one of the day’s biggest upsets in disposing of Australian n° 13 Viktorija Rajicic 75 64.
In the bottom half of the draw second seed Timea Babos from Hungary advanced to the third round with a 61 63 victory over Hua-Chen Lee from Chinese Taipei and 15th seed Kanyapat Narattana from Thailand saw off Japanese Miyu Kato 64 61. Ekaterina Nikitina from Russia knocked out eighth seed Mai Grage of Denmark with a straight sets victory 63 64. Croatian third seed Silvia Njiric had no problems against Britain’s Elisha Gabb, winning 63 63.
In the boys’ event, top seeded world number two Daniel Berta from Sweden secured an easy 62 62 victory over Chieh-Fu Wang of Chinese Taipei. Berta now faces local qualifier Takeshi Endo, who was able to beat number 13 Barrett Franks of New Zealand 62 75, while second seed Liang-Chi Huang will play Australian Luke Saville after the latter upset n° 16 Mikelis Libietis from Latvia 75 63. Aftre a marathon match, Great Britain’s Robert Carter defeated Japanese Kalchi Uchida 67(4) 62 75 and in the third round he will meet eighth seed Japanese Hiroyasu Ehara (a 75 46 62 winner over Jaden Grinter of New Zealand).
In the bottom half of the draw, third seed Pierre Hugues Herbert of France, who reached the semifinals at the US Open last month, demonstrated once again his championship credentials by overcoming Australian William Kwok 63 63. His next opponent will be n° 14 Japanese Taro Daniel who easily disposed of Jui Mao from Chinese Taipei 64 60. N° 10 Ben McLachlan from New Zealand beat Kyu-Min Park of Korea 63 76(5) but another Korean player, Jea Moon Lee, outclassed seventh seed Francis Casey Alcantara from the Philippines with a comfortable 62 63 win. In the top half of the draw, number five Cheng-Peng Hsieh (TPE), winner at the Grade 1 Japan Open in Nagoya last April, advanced to the third round with a 62 64 win over Japanese wild card Soma Kuribayashi and n° 11 Jason Murray Kubler from Australia eased into round three with a 62 64 victory over home player Hikaru Oshiro.
Despite losing the first set, Indian 15th seed Vaidik Munshaw came back strongly in the second set and defeated Japanese qualifier Rikuto Furuta 46 61 64. Jeson Patrombon from the Philippines booked his place in the third round by defeating fourth seed Shiuchi Sekiguchi 62 36 64. Number six Filip Horansky from Slovakia saw off Australian Ben Wagland 64 64 number nine Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN) pursued his dream in the competition by winning 75 62 against compatriot Yosuke Takeuchi.
Related Articles
> Berta and Babos advance easily into second round
> Seeds start with wins in Osaka
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