 Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 25 Oct 2009 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 25 Oct 2009 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 25 Oct 2009 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 23 Oct 2009 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 23 Oct 2009 |  Photographer: Hiromasa Mano
Date: 23 Oct 2009 |
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| 24 Oct 2009 - Marco Massetani | |
| Kubler & Ehara in final at Osaka Mayor's Cup |
16-year-old Jason Kubler of Australia continued to shine at the Grade A Osaka Mayor’s Cup as he conquered home player, ninth seed Yasutaka Uchiyama, on Saturday to take his place in the first Grade A final of his career.
Eleventh seed Kubler is surely one of the emerging tennis talents in the world. In 2007 he led his country to a win at the Under 14 World Junior Tennis competition in Prostejov, Czech Republic, winning all his singles matches, and almost three weeks ago he triumphed with Australia at the Junior Davis Cup BNP Paribas in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, so equalling Rafa Nadal’s impressive record. Thanks to an excellent build, powerful shots and a heavy service, Kubler was able to dispose of Uchiyama with a 63 75 victory. He will meet in the final another home player, number eight seed Hiroyasu Ehara, who reached the quarterfinals at the Italian Open, Asian Closed Championship and Optus Nottinghill this year. Despite dropping the first set to unseeded Korean Jes Moon Lee, 18-year-old Ehara hit back to take the second one, then his greater experience was decisive in the crucial third set for a 06 64 64 win.
As expected, top seeded world number two Kristina Mladenovic from France will play second seed Timea Babos of Hungary in tomorrow’s girls’ final. Roland Garros champion Mladenovic, who loves Dementieva’s style, has so far posted a 38-7 win loss record in singles this tear, but had to dig deep to overcome ninth seed Tamara Curovic from Serbia with a 64 75 victory. 16-year-old Babos will try to win her third Asian title of the year, seven month after her victories at the Japan Open in Nagoya and the Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup, Malaysia. At the Osaka Major’s Cup she has lost 18 games in five rounds of play and today she easily outplayed Japanese n° 10 seed Sachie Ishizu 61 61.
Without losing a single set during their campaign, top seeded defending champions Kristina Mladenovic of France and Timea Babos of Hungary triumphed in the girls’ doubles final scoring a straight sets 62 75 victory over fifth seeded Mai Grage of Denmark and Saisai Zheng of China. In 2009 Mladenovic won the doubles titles at the European Junior Championshisps, Copa Gerdau and Loy Yang Power Traralgon, Australia, and was a finalist at the Banana Bowl and Wimbledon Juniors, while Babos was runner-up at the Aegon Junior Championship, Roland Garros and the Japan Open, winning titles at the Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup in Malaysia and Copa Gatorade in Venezuela, always playing with different partners.
In the boys’ doubles, fifth seeded Pierre Hugues Herbert of France and his partner Cheng Peng Hsieh from Chinese Taipei wasted little time in winning the first set 60, but they had to fight in the second, taking the tie-break 7-4 against fifth seeds Hiroyasu Ehara and Yasutaka Uchiyama from Japan. This year Herbert was doubles champion at Wimbledon, partnering with Kevin Krawietz from Germany, and finalist at the Aegon Junior Championships in Roehampton. Before winning at the Osaka Mayor’s Cup, 18-year-old Hsieh captured five doubles titles in 2009, including Grand Slam wins at the US Open and Australian Open, as well as his success at the Grade 1 Astrid Bowl in Belgium.
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