Stellenbosch, South Africa – With temperatures souring to more than 40 degrees Celsius some of the players at the Curro Junior ITF 2 tennis tournament lifted their game to produce some red-hot tennis on a very warm day in Stellenbosch.
Top seeds Nicole Petchey and Timothy Dollman did not have too much trouble to book their place in the quarterfinals. Petchey won her match against Britain’s Olivia Elliot 6-1, 6-1, while Dollman’s opponent Eduardo Morais from Angola played some good tennis until cramps started to hamper him. Dollman won with 6-3, 6-2.
The highest seeded player to stumble on day two was sixth seed Lance-Pierre du Toit who also played the longest match of the day. He lost in just less than three hours to 12th seed Philip Henning, who won by 1-6, 6-3 and 6-2. The 10th seed Christian van der Wath lost in three sets to unseeded Christiaan Worst, who won 0-6, 6-3 and 6-3. Thirteen proved to be an unlucky number for Aaron Marks who stumbled against Daniel du Toit (1-6, 6-1 and 6-3). On day one various seeded players were eliminated including girls’ third seed Nadine de Villiers, fourth seed Amelie Boy and in the boys’ draw Altus Karsten (5th).
Last week’s champions Eliz Maloney and Bertus Kruger – both seeded two for this week – is also still going strong. Maloney made easy work of her match against Corin de Waal by winning 6-1, 6-1. Kruger lost only three games in his victory by 6-2, 6-1 over Pierre Malan. Third seed Sipho Montsi had an easy win over Dylan Puchert in two sets 6-1, 6-1.
Stellenbosch local Minette van Vreden is producing some good form and won her match against Samantha Johnson in quick time by 6-0, 6-1. Other seeded players through to the next round are James Roelofse (11th), Imaan Hassim (5th), Maja Gledic (6th), Ciney Bekker (7th) and Freddie van der Merwe (9th).