Aussie juniors win, doubles stars fall
Australia's junior boys all won their singles matches on Monday at the French Open, while it was a day to forget for the green-and-gold in doubles action.
Paris, France, 5 June 2012 | Tennis Australia
Australia enjoyed a successful day in the French Open juniors event on Monday, with all four boys winning their singles matches at Roland Garros.
After a tense first round win on Sunday, No.1 seed Luke Saville went up a gear in his second match, breezing past Britain’s Luke Bambridge for the loss of just four games.
The 6-0 6-4 victory, achieved in one hour and 11 minutes, sets up a third round showdown with Italy’s Matteo Donati, the world No.37 junior who upended Portuguese 14th seed Frederico Ferreira Silva 9-7 in the third set.
Saville will take to the court for that match on Tuesday, a day when three other compatriots will feature in second round action after wins in their opening matches in Paris.
Sydneysider Jordan Thompson caused one of the upsets of the junior event so far thanks to a three-set victory over No.12 seed Mackenzie McDonald of the United States.
Thompson, enjoying excellent form on clay following his run to the Astrid Bowl semifinals last week in Belgium, continued in the same vein with an epic 6-3 5-7 10-8 win after almost three hours on court.
He will be hoping to recover in time for his next match against Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro, who also reached the second round after a three set win.
The other Aussie boys enjoyed an easier route through to the final 32.
Victorian 13th seed Andrew Harris faced little difficulty throughout his 6-2 6-2 win over Czech Vaclav Safranek, while Harris’ partner in the boys’ doubles event, Nick Kyrgios, dismissed Arjun Kadhe 6-3 6-3.
Aussies fall in doubles
The exciting run of the Aussies in doubles action at Roland Garros has come to an end, with all falling at the quarterfinal stage of their respective events.
Jarmila Gajdosova and Anastasia Rodionova, seeded 14th in the women’s doubles, lost 6-2 6-3 to No.12 seeds Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain.
It was a similar story for Matthew Ebden, who in partnership with Ryan Harrison went down 6-4 6-4 to the top seeded combination of Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor.
Paul Hanley came extremely close to progressing to the semifinals with South Africa’s Natalie Grandin in the mixed event, the pair fighting hard before ultimately falling in a match tie break against the Polish-Mexican duo of Klaudia Jans-Ignacik and Santiago Gonzalez.
The final score was 6-4 3-6 [10-5].