Only one seeded player Louis Vosloo showed on Wednesday he had not lost his touch as the former ATP Tour player moved into the last eight of the SAA National Championships played at the Wanderers Tennis Club.
The unseeded Vosloo defeated one of the country’s stalwarts, Michael de Jongh, 6-4 3-6 6-3 to set up a quarter-final contest with top seed Izak van der Merwe. Van der Merwe proved far too good for talented junior Hendrik Coertzen, winning through 6-3 6-0.
“I know Michael very well. I know his type of play because I have played with and against him a couple of times so I knew what to expect from him,” said Vosloo.” It was pretty difficult for me out there because my fitness level is low but I want to play well and hopefully go further in the competition.”
The 28-year-old Vosloo retired somewhat prematurely from the tour and was ranked as high as 170 in the world. Whatever he may have lacked in size and power he certainly made up for in craftiness and agility and if his fitness does not impede him too much, the encounter with Van der Merwe should be quite absorbing.
The 22-year-old Van der Merwe is currently ranked 442, his best so far, but he is on the incline and is pretty talented. He has already been included in South Africa’s Davis Cup team.
The only seed to bow out in the men’s draw Wednesday was highly regarded junior Rikus de Villiers, who was forced to retire early in the second during his match against Jean Andersen. “I am pretty disappointed to go out of the competition so early because I know I can beat Jean,” said De Villiers. “The physiotherapist said I pulled a muscle between the ribs. It was unlucky that I had to pull out and had it not been for the injury, I think I would have gone further.”
By way of contrast the women’s draw lost all but its top two seeds – Lizaan du Plessis and Kim Rudman respectively – on Wednesday. Third seed Dennett Rachelle fell to Lara van Rooyen 6-0 6-4, Chane Hines put out fourth seed Debbie van Aswegen 6-4 6-1, Bronwyn Davidson beat sixth seed Annelie van der Heever 3-6 6-2 6-2, while Megan Sporndli ousted seventh seeded Lisa Wade 6-4 7-6 (7-4).
Despite her victory Hines felt she did not play very well. “However, I am very happy that I managed to pull a win against Debbie. She is a very good player but I have beaten her before, which is why I was not afraid going into the match. I am feeling very much confident going into the next round of the tournament.”
Her next opponent will be Davidson, who just missed out on a seeding.
Play in the quarter-finals begins at 9.30am on Thursday.
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