Qualifer Couts and unseeded Gullickson Advance to Round of 16 at Australian Junior Open

Qualifer Couts and unseeded Gullickson Advance to Round of 16 at Australian Junior Open~~~
©Colette Lewis 2006
Melbourne--

Kimberly Couts and Chelsey Gullickson came out blazing Tuesday in second round girls action. The sixteen-year-old Couts, who as a qualifier has now won four straight matches since Saturday, defeated Russia's Anastasia Pivovarova 6-2, 6-4. Ranked outside the ITF's top 100, Couts has not dropped a set in her streak, and has been playing well since the Yucatan Cup in December, where she defeated Gullickson in the second round.

Gullickson, 15, is also showing an affinity for Australia, as she advanced to the semifinals of the Grade 1 at Nottinghill last week, losing to eventual champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. On Tuesday, Gullickson steamrolled 15th seed Alize Cornet of France 7-5, 6-0, with her relentless arsenal of groundstrokes setting up a confrontation with second seed Raluca Olaru of Romania in the Round of 16.

Lauren Albanese, the third U.S. girl to reach the second round, was eliminated by fourth seed Ayumi Morita of Japan 7-5, 6-4.

The girls draw has featured very few upsets, with only four unseeded players failing to reach the third round.

In first round doubles action, Madison Brengle and Kristy Frilling were the only U.S. girls team to advance. The unseeded pair defeated Jade Curtis of Great Britain and Ellah Nze of the U.S. 7-5, 6-3.

In boys doubles, the U.S. team of Kellen Damico and Nate Schnugg, seeded sixth, advanced in three sets. Within a few hours of being taken off the court in a wheelchair, Damico had recovered enough to consider playing. "I'm going to give it a try," Damico said. "I'll let Nate do all the running around and retrieving."

The other U.S. boys in the draw have teamed with players from other nations and had mixed results on Tuesday. Jamie Hunt, playing with Ivan Sergeyev of the Ukraine and seeded fifth, moved on, as did Mateusz Kecki, with Bassam Beidas of Lebanon. Dennis Lajola capped a perfect day by recording a straight set win with partner Christian Vitulli of Kenya.

Complete doubles draws are available from the Australian Open website.