Americans Damico, Lajola, Schnugg and lucky loser Racz advance in first round action at Australian Junior Open

Americans Damico, Lajola, Schnugg and lucky loser Racz advance in first round action at Australian Junior Open~~~
©Colette Lewis 2006
Melbourne--

The weather gods took mercy on the juniors at the Australian Open today, with mostly overcast skies and temperatures a full thirty degrees cooler than Sunday's sauna-like conditions. All of the boys matches featuring U.S. players are complete, so it's a good opportunity for a brief rundown of that first round action. I apologize in advance for the scattered nature of this post, but on the first day, especially when all the opening round matches are played within a twelve hour window, it is difficult to make cogent observations on them all.

Fifth seed Kellen Damico, the sole American seeded in the tournament, defeated Roman Jebavy of the Czech Republic 6-4, 7-5 and Dennis Lajola also brought down a Czech player with his 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 triumph over Jiri Kosler. Nate Schnugg upset Orange Bowl finalist and 26th ranked Paris Gemouchidis of Greece 6-4, 6-3 and Chris Racz pulled an even bigger upset, taking out 12th seed Stephen Donald of Australia 6-3, 7-5. Racz lost in the second round of qualifying, but gained entry as the tournament's sole lucky loser. Donald called for a trainer down a set and 1-0, but the treatment he received couldn't stem the epidemic of unforced errors infecting his game and the 41 he committed ultimately cost him the match.

The news not all bad for Australian boys however. Of the 14 who gained entry, eight advanced and several of the wins were unexpected. Steven Goh took out sixth seed Jeevan Neduncherhiyan of India 8-6 in the third; Brydan Klein overwhelmed seventh seed Kevin Botti of France 6-3, 6-1, and Greg Jones upended 14th Valeri Rudnev of Russia. But the Australian flavor was most pronounced in wild card Yan Levinski's win over Antonio Veic of Croatia, the ninth seed and champion of the recent Grade 1 Loy Yang tournament. A couple of dozen chanting, stomping and whistle-blowing supporters cheered Levinski, who has never played an ITF event outside of Australia, to a 7-6 (5), 6-4 upset.

The biggest surprise of the day in the boys first round was the quick exit of second seed Robin Roshardt of Switzerland. Roshardt, the Orange Bowl champion, fell to 79th ranked Grzegorz Panfil of Poland 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Eleanor Preston has the complete story of that upset posted on the ITF's website. Top seed Thiemo de Bakker, who is on an 18 match win streak to start 2006, advanced over Australian Patrick Nicholls in straight sets.

Half of the eight U.S. boys entered lost, including an ailing Jamie Hunt, who dropped a 6-1, 6-4 decision to Jaak Poldma of Estonia. Hunt is only recently recovered from a sprained ankle that forced his retirement in an Orange Bowl match, and in addition, the seventeen-year-old from Texas was struck with a viral ailment a few days ago that left him feeling sluggish. Leo Rosenberg lost to wild card Ryan Bellamy of Australia 6-2, 6-2; Mateusz Kecki fell to qualifier Thomas Fabbiano of Italy 6-4, 6-4 and Johnny Hamui was taken out by Tim Goransson of Sweden by the same score.

I'll be posting a roundup of the results of the ten U.S. girls in action later.

Click here for official draws from the Australian Open website.

For additional photos of the U.S. boys playing in Australia, see ustaboys.com throughout the tournament.