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Sunday, June 1, 2008

Junior Championships Begin at Roland Garros


About three-quarters of the first round of junior singles were played Sunday at Roland Garros, and the U.S. went 3-2. Melanie Oudin, who in her last junior Grand Slam, the 2007 U.S. Open, needed a wild card to get into the main draw, is the top seed in Paris, and she played like it, losing only one game to lucky loser Valeria Savinykh of Russia. Mallory Burdette also advanced, with a straight-set win over qualifier Misaki Doi of Japan. Madison Brengle, the only other U.S. girl in the main draw acceptances, was a late scratch, as was Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia. That leaves the U.S. with two of the 64 female competitors, one less than Hungary. Susie Babos's younger sister Timea, one of the Hungarians, advanced to the second round with a win Sunday.

The news for the U.S. boys was not as good. Bradley Klahn and Jarmere Jenkins lost in straight sets; ninth seed Ryan Harrison, who is blogging this week for the ITF Junior website, did avenge his loss in Belgium to Milos Raonic of Canada in three sets. Chase Buchanan, who fell in the Astrid Bowl final to Flilip Krajinovic of Serbia, will play No. 3 seed Jonathan Eysseric of France Monday.

The biggest upsets of the day were the losses of the No. 4 seeds Ana Bogdan of Romania to Richel Hogenkamp of the Netherlands in a 10-8 third set, and Yuki Bhambri of India, to Guillaume Rufin of France, in a quick 6-2, 6-1.

For complete draws, see rolandgarros.com.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Colette,

Out of curiosity, how many lead-up events are the American players getting on red clay in Europe prior to the French Open? I know that a few of the Australian past-players such as Cahill, Woodforde, Woodbridge and Stoltenberg (guys who have managed to adapt fast-court games to clay) have said that anything less than 3 is a waste of time. Do you know what the thinking is for the American coaches?

Anonymous said...

Andrewd, To try and answer your question.. There are 3 Futures tournaments in Fla. on green clay leading up to the 3 warm up tournaments on red clay in Italy and Belgium before the French. The 3rd Futures could overlap the tournament in Italy so they have the option of playing the 1st 2 futures in Fla. and then have a week off before playing Belgium and the French or playing all 3 futures in Fla. and going to the French straight away. Ryan chose to play the 2 futures and then Belgium and then the French with a week off in between so as not to play 4 straight weeks. I think it depends on the individual as far as how many warm up tournaments they play and if they are comfortable adapting quickly enough. Turns out it wouldn't have mattered in Belgium as it rained and Ryans match was moved to fast indoors which should have helped him but he got killed 1 and 1. He then played the same opponent in the french on the red clay and won. So I think its difficult to say there is any right or wrong way to approach it.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting junior slam this year. Hoping for a few good matches at least. First of all Filip Krajinovic-Ryan Harrison could be a great clash. Ofcourse if they go far enough through the draw. Maybe a way too early for predictions, but I guess final could be between Eyserric and some of those two kids mentioned above.
Hope Filip wins the slam.