Namibian tennis players continued to shine at the International Tennis Federation J30 u18 junior tournament in Windhoek yesterday, with three players progressing to the quarterfinals.
In the girls singles Joanivia Bezuidenhout and Mari van Schalkwyk both beat seeded players to advance, while in the boys singles, Israel Dowie survived a tough battle to qualify for the quarterfinals.
Bezuidenhout was in top form as she beat the seventh seeded Rutendo Mavhenyengwa of Zimbabwe 6-1, 6-2.
Displaying a solid serve and accurate groundstrokes Bezuidenhout took the initiative from the start against the erratic Mavhenyengwa who made far too many unforced errors and was already broken in her first service game.
Bezuidenhout easily wrapped up the first set and although she was broken in the second, she immediately struck back with another service break to run out a comfortable winner.
After the game Bezuidenhout said she was pleased with her performance.
“I was very pleased with my game – I’m very happy with how I played although I made some mistakes here and there. I just focussed positively on what I was doing and I think I implemented everything that I worked on and I’m happy with that,” she said.
“I am very proud of myself, although I feel that I shouldnt focus on the ranking of the player or if they are seeded or not. It’s just another person on the other side of the net and I must just focus on my game and the ball,” she added.
“Now I’m into the quarterfinals, I’ll try my best, I’ll work very hard to make it past the quarters, but in tennis you can never tell whats going to happen, you can just try to do your best,” she added.
Bezuidenhout, who two weeks ago reached the doubles semifinals in an ITF junior tournament in Botswana, will now meet the top seed Milan Swanepoel of South Africa in the quarterfinals. Swanepoel hardly broke a sweat as she beat Beulah Kaseke of Zimbabwe 6-0, 6-0.
Van Schalkwyk, meanwhile, showed great determination to beat the fourth seed, Ceressa Jackson of Austrlia in three sets.
Jackson won the first set on a tiebreaker 7-6, but Van Schalkwyk bounced back to win the second 6-1, and although she was pushed all the way in the third set she went on to win it 7-5.
Van Schalkwyk will now face the sixth seeded Botshelo Diseko of South Africa who beat Emmly George of Zimbabwe 6-0, 6-2.
In other girls u18 second round matches yesterday, the third seed Chanelle Zhuwakini of Zimbabwe beat Megan van Vuuren of South Africa 6-4, 6-4; the fifth seed Minenhle Moyo of Zimbabwe beat Courtney Kemp of SA 6-2, 6-2; and the second seed Catarina Braun of Portugal beat Tatum Ann Mac Naughton of SA 6-4, 6-2.
In the boy sinlges, Dowie survived a tough encounter to beat Jean Joubert of South Africa. The second seeded Dowie was pushed all the way before winning in straight sets 6-4, 7-5 to book a place in the quarterfinals.
In other boys second round matches, the top seed Oluhle Senti of SA beat Jaden van der Westhuizen of Germany 6-0, 6-0; Kevin Schnell of Austria beat Henrik Bergh of Norway 7-6, 3-6, 6-3; Nicholas Kruger of SA beat Tobias Lassacher of Austria 6-0, 6-3; Stefanos Roussos of Greece beat Vladimir Ignjatov of SA 6-0, 6-0; Mattis Thorsnes of Norway beat Henry Bisang of Switzerland 6-1, 6-2; Francisco Sardinha of Portugal beat Kei Badenhorst of SA 6-3, 7-6; and Alexzander Petrov of SA beat Lucas Wieser of Austria 7-5, 6-4.
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