Cape Town, South Africa – Friday’s Women 35 singles final will be an all-German affair after Andrea Fischer and Gitte Moeller emerged victorious from their semifinal encounters on Wednesday at the ITF Young Seniors World Individual Championships in Cape Town.
The unseeded Fischer produced yet another giant-killing performance at the Kelvin Grove courts where she defeated another seed – her third on the trot, en route to the final.
This time it was the prized scalp of the top seed, Christina Popescu of Canada, who battled to cope with Fischer’s relentless pressure. Fischer won 7-6(3) 6-3.
Afterwards, Fischer said: “I peppered her with lots of top-spin high balls to her backhand and she made mistakes. It was working well because it broke her rhythm.
“There were times when I upped the tempo of the game and it took her by surprise.”
Fischer’s stronger serve came to the fore in the first-set tiebreak and it seemed to lift game somewhat when the second set got under way.
In the other semifinal, an all-German shoot-out, fourth-seeded Gitte Moeller had her work cut out against unseeded Manon Kruse before she signed off with a 6-4 6-4 win.
Kruse seemed to be bothered by her left wrist when playing the double-handed backhand. After the match, she went for treatment to the physio.
Moeller and Kruse are also doubles partners and have reached Thursday’s doubles final after eliminating the top seeds in the semis.
Over at the Western Province Tennis headquarters, all eyes were on local hope Jacqueline Booth, the Women’s 45 third seed.
She went up against fellow South African Rene Plant in the first singles quarterfinal and in the end youth triumphed over experience as Booth won 6-2 6-2.
Plant, five years Booth’s senior, is a former Wimbledon girls singles finalist and a seasoned women’s tour pro who played all the Majors with the exception of the Australian Open in the 1980s.
It turned out to be a classic encounter with Booth imposing herself on the contest with a full array of shots, particularly in the second set when she played with a lot more freedom.
Plant remained unbowed for most of the way and at times tried hard to wrest the initiative by reeling off a succession of angled groundstrokes. She managed a few delightful passing winners when Booth was stranded at the net.
However, Booth was quite content to run down the balls and given her repertoire of shots did well to pick up the ‘big points’ when it mattered. On occasions, the gracious Plant acknowledged her younger opponent’s prowess.
In later matches, Booth went out in the doubles and mixed semifinals and that could count as a blessing in disguise since she’s been receiving treatment all week for a troublesome right shoulder.
Booth will play second seed Ana Salas-Lozano of Spain in a semifinal on Thursday. In the other semi, fourth-seeded Eva Haslinghuis of The Netherlands will go up against South Africa’s Lettica Venter, the 16th seed.
One of the characters at this week’s tournament has been Jeronimo De Faria-Lopes, who describes himself as a “one arm amputee tennis player” and on Wednesday he bowed out in the Men’s 35 consolation singles quarterfinal round after he spurned two match points.
De Faria-Lopes, who hails from Johannesburg, suffered an accident at the age of six and his left arm was amputated.
He has no problem playing against able-bodied opponents and sometimes his matchwinning performances have left opponents bewildered.
“They just can’t believe that they’ve lost a match to a player with one arm,” said De Faria-Lopes.
He has been playing since the age of seven and holds the racquet and ball in his right hand for the toss when serving.
And his greatest delight is hitting an ace!
In the last few years, he has been playing in TAP (Adaptive Tennis in Standing Position) tournaments around the world.