Both the men and women’s top seeds safely navigated their semifinal matches and have move into their respective finals at SAA National Championships played at the Wanderers Tennis Club on Friday.
Izak van der Merwe easily accounted for fourth seed Heinrich Heyl 6-4 6-2 in the men’s draw while his opposite number in the women’s competition, Lizaan du Plessis, put out Megan Sporndli of Gauteng East 6-2 6-3.
Van der Merwe will take on second seed Pieter Calitz, who defeated third seed Benjamin Janse van Rensburg 6-2 6-3, in Saturday’s final.
Du Plessis though will take on unseeded 16-year-old Bronwyn ‘Bonny’ Davidson, who stopped second seed Kim Rudman 6-3 7-5.
It is not a match the top seed will be relishing, however, as Davidson gave her a 6-0 6-0 hiding last week at the Senior Interprovincial tournament.
"Bonny is a great player,” said Du Plessis. “She has got so much experience playing on the ITF junior circuit. It’s not going to be a easy match but I will give it my best shot to get my revenge.”
Davidson took an hour and 41 minutes to stop Rudman but said she felt she had a psycholgical edge over the number two seed as the pair had been seeded one and two at last week’s interpro, but it had been Davidson who had been given the top seed over Rudman at that event.
“I felt I had gave me the mental advantage over Kim. We both know each others games well as we practice a lot together.”
Davidson was obviously excited to be in Saturday’s final but says she is focussing on the ITF Junior Circuit in order to gain experience as well as variety in her game. “At home we tend to play the same people week in and week out and in my opinion, if we want to do well internationally, we have to expose ourselves to the international junior circuit.”
In the men’s final Calitz could also have the psychological edge over Van der Merwe although the top seed is determined to avenge last year’s narrow defeat. “A year ago I lost in a Futures final to Pieter 6-4 in the decider. I had my chances to win that match but Pieter took it. Now it’s my chance to gain revenge,” said Van der Merwe.
The doubles semifinals had barely started when the rain came down and as a result, they will take place now on Saturday.
Final play on Saturday starts at 09h30
No comments:
Post a Comment