South African Ilze Hattingh continued her good run of form when she beat the sixth seed Jaeda Daniel from America in the first round of the Digicall Futures 2 tennis tournament played in Stellenbosch.
It is the second tournament in a series of three international Futures events in Stellenbosch. All matches are played at the Coetzenburg courts of the Stellenbosch University.
Hattingh reached the semi-final of the previous tournament and showed great fighting spirit to reach the second round by beating Daniel 6-4 6-3 in 1 hour and 49 minutes.
One of the top junior players in the world, Jay Clarke from Great Britain once again broke local hearts when he – like he did last week – beat South African Nik Scholtz. Last week the 18-year-old Clarke and Scholtz meet in the quarterfinals before the Brit retired in his semi-final match with an injury. He obviously did not have any more worry from that injury because he played some brilliant tennis against Scholtz. The fourth seed Scholtz had to answer the game of Clarke, who had some luck on his side as well.
Hattingh was not the only South African through to the second round though. Madrie le Roux beat Dutch player Donnaroza Gouvernante 6-2 7-5. Wild card Bertus Kruger also advanced after winning his match against Alexander Merino from Peru 6-3 6-4.
Last week’s champions Lloyd Harris and Chanel Simmonds will be in action tomorrow.
