At a sun-scorched Arthur Ashe Tennis Centre on Tuesday, more top men’s seeds exited in the first round of the Soweto Open.
Adding to the demise of top-seeded Slovakian Lukas Lacko, the world’s 65th-ranked player, fellow-Slovakian and second-seeded Karol Beck on Monday, and third-seeded Yen-Haun Lu of Tapei, it was also a case of a heart-breaking defeat for South African hope and last year’s beaten finalist, Rik De Voest.
Following the defeat of the second-seeded Beck on the opening, third-seeded Lu went down 3-6 7-6 (5) 6-4 to the big-hitting Nicolas Mahut in a titanic, see-sawing battle.
Lacko went down 3-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 to Ruben Bemelmans.
Mahut, who had a match-point before losing to Andy Roddick in the final at Queens in London two years ago, is now looked on as the dangerous dark horse in the tournament, with the lanky Frenchman possessing a serve that will be hard to master by anyone.
But it was the eclipse of long-time South African Davis Cup stalwart De Voest that aroused most of the emotion and excitement in the meagre crowd of a couple of hundred during a nail-biting, narrow 7-6 (4) 6-4 defeat to Israel’s fourth-seeded Harel Levy.
The women’s singles, in contrast to the men in twin events that each boast R750 000 in prize money, was relatively uneventful and predictable, with top-seeded Elena Baltacha of Great Britain cruising to a 6-2 6-2 victory over Russia’s Vitalia Diatchenko, and second-seeded Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand, a former world top 20 player, equally in command in a 6-2 6-1 victory over Welma Luus of South Africa.
And now it is South African teenagers Nikala Scholtz and Chanel Simmonds, who held centre stage with shock victories over seeded players on the opening day, who will be the focus of attention in Wednesday’s last-16 rounds. — Sapa