Friday 29th Nov 2002

by Annie Paton
Romania had a great day in the 18s, with Liana Balaci (6) and Horia Tecau taking out the number one seeds and Florin Mergea (5) stopping the talented Lado Chikhladze (GEO). Liana was the first to draw blood by knocking out Anna-Lena Groenefeld (1) (GER) on the show court 15 in a decisive two setter, 6-3; 6-4. A couple of hours later, doubles pals, Horia Tecau and Florin Mergea walked off their respective courts holding on to the winning balls.

Liana Balaci's domination of Anna Lena Groenefeld made it look almost routine. "I wanted to win today because she won in Luxembourg," said Liana, who is 85 in the ITF junior circuit rankings and 480 in the WTA. "She's a very good player and I wanted to play very well." That she surely did. Anna-Lena seemed unsure how to play her and had trouble controlling her opponent's power. "I don't think she was as motivated as me," said Liana. "I wanted more to win."

Horia Tecau, who trains here at the Bollettieri Academy, came back from a set down to unseat number one seed, Mathieu Montcourt (FRA) in a three set thriller. A large crowd gathered to cheer on their home boy and Horia did not disappoint. "It was nice playing home and the people were there for me," said Horia.

Even when Mathieu served for the match at 5-3, Horia kept his composure to break and force the tie breaker. "In the first set he didn't give me any free points," Horia said. "I was trying to serve and volley but his returns were too good, so I just decided to stay back and rally with him, but giving him slices and different kinds of shots to change the rhythm and pace, because he likes to play from the baseline."

Mathieu had some disagreements with the umpire over line calls, which affected his composure at the end of the second set. "I just tried to fight for every point and I didn't care what the score was," said Horia. "I knew how to play him and I just decided to stick with what I am doing better at the moment."

A serve and volleyer by nature, Horia continued to approach the net but Mathieu came up with some brilliant passing shots time and time again. "I lost most of the points when I went to the net," said Horia. "But I was still going in because I think this is my game." However, Horia survived the long baseline rallies and maintained the momentum to outlast the Frenchman. "He went down a little bit after losing that breaker," he continued. "I didn't get mad when I missed the ball and I played good that last set." Match score: 1-6; 7-6(6); 6-1.

Florin Mergea's defeat of Lado Chikladze completed the hat trick for Romania. Now it only remains to see if they will face each other in the final. As doubles partners, Horia and Florin are going after the ITF junior ranking points. If they win Orange Bowl, Florin said, they could be one and two in the world.

This is only Liana's fourth junior tournament this year, but she hopes to do well at the upcoming Winter International and Orange Bowl. "Who knows, maybe I can be top ten," she said. "I want to play juniors because I want to play grand slams." Liana was supposed to qualify for the Winter International, which starts tomorrow, but because of her semifinal showing here she has been give a special exempt directly into the main draw.

Qualifier, Nestor Briceno (USA), continues into the semifinals after defeating 13th seed, Heithem Abid from Tunisia, 6-1; 4-6; 6-1, in his 7th match of the tournament. "Bad luck I didn't get placed in the main draw," said Nestor. "I just had to come out here and prove I should have been in the main draw."

Florian Lemke (GER) is happy to know he still has the game to defeat top players like Komlavi Loglo (TOG). Three and half months ago he injured his foot so badly that he was contemplating ending his tennis career. "I was just lying in bed, no tennis or fitness. I was feeling bad and I felt like quitting tennis." said Florian. "Right now I am just happy to be back playing matches again." Florian is playing in only his second tournament since the injury.

In another exciting match of the day, Ana Ivanovic (13) (YUG) came back from behind in both sets to defeat Viktoriya Kutuzova (UKR) 7-5; 7-6(6). In the first set she was down 2-5 and in the second she came back from 1-4. Both girl's were rifling their ground strokes at a whopping pace, with plenty of variety and very few errors. It was a match of the highest quality, much to the appreciation of those lucky enough to watch.

With so many exciting matches today we must not forget the 12s finals, held this morning at 8:00am. In the boys 12 singles final, Maksim Tikhomirov (USA) defeated Rashaad Williams (USA), 6-4; 6-3 and girl's 12, Sharon Fichman from Canada made it a double whammy by adding another trophy to the one she earned yesterday in the doubles final. In singles she continues to be stingy giving away only three games to Ine Nowe from Belgium; Sharon conceded 9 games for the whole tournament.