Strydom beats Soderberg

NAMIBIA’S Jurgens Strydom progressed to the quarterfinals of the ITF Men’s Futures Tournament when he beat Henrik Soderberg of Sweden in straight sets yesterday.

Strydom was solid all round, displaying strong serves and groundstrokes as well as some deft volleys at the net to win the match 6-4, 6-4. “I’m quite happy with the result because I have been struggling with a bad cold.Soderberg is a big hitter and it was difficult to get into the game, but I started to find my range midway through the first set,” he said.Strydom next faces the top seed, Matteo Volante of Italy, who is ranked 502nd in the world, and said he was hopeful of another victory.”I have beaten higher ranked players in the past, and the ranking doesn’t matter.It’s what you do on the court that counts,” Strydom said.Volante advanced to the quarterfinals after comfortably beating Alexei Filenkov of Russia, 6-2, 6-0.Strydom is the only Namibian left in the tournament.Yesterday he and compatriot Johan Theron were eliminated from the doubles competition when they lost 6-1, 6-4 to the top seeds, Volante and Claudio Grassi of Italy.In other singles matches yesterday, the second-seeded Edward Seator of England beat Saar Steele of Israel 6-1, 6-0, while the sixth-seeded Claudio Grassi beat Danila Arsenov of Russia 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.A qualifier, Heinrich Heyl of South Africa, beat Nicholas Grammare of France 6-3, 6-3, while another South African, Benjamin Janse van Rensburg, beat Alexander Somogyi of Slovakia 6-3, 6-4.Another qualifier, Mathias Dorfler of Germany, beat Lofu Ramiaramanan of Madagascar 6-1, 6-3, while Richard Ruckelshausen of Austria beat James Feaver of England 6-2, 6-3.www.namibiasport.com.na”I’m quite happy with the result because I have been struggling with a bad cold.Soderberg is a big hitter and it was difficult to get into the game, but I started to find my range midway through the first set,” he said.Strydom next faces the top seed, Matteo Volante of Italy, who is ranked 502nd in the world, and said he was hopeful of another victory.”I have beaten higher ranked players in the past, and the ranking doesn’t matter.It’s what you do on the court that counts,” Strydom said.Volante advanced to the quarterfinals after comfortably beating Alexei Filenkov of Russia, 6-2, 6-0.Strydom is the only Namibian left in the tournament.Yesterday he and compatriot Johan Theron were eliminated from the doubles competition when they lost 6-1, 6-4 to the top seeds, Volante and Claudio Grassi of Italy.In other singles matches yesterday, the second-seeded Edward Seator of England beat Saar Steele of Israel 6-1, 6-0, while the sixth-seeded Claudio Grassi beat Danila Arsenov of Russia 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.A qualifier, Heinrich Heyl of South Africa, beat Nicholas Grammare of France 6-3, 6-3, while another South African, Benjamin Janse van Rensburg, beat Alexander Somogyi of Slovakia 6-3, 6-4.Another qualifier, Mathias Dorfler of Germany, beat Lofu Ramiaramanan of Madagascar 6-1, 6-3, while Richard Ruckelshausen of Austria beat James Feaver of England 6-2, 6-3.www.namibiasport.com.na