Stellenbosch, South Africa – It was a good day for seeded South Africans in the Digicall Futures 1 international tennis tournament in Stellenbosch on Thursday.
In the much anticipated men’s singles second round clash, second seed Nik Scholtz of South Africa beat unseeded Wesley Whitehouse of New Zealand 7-6 (2), 6-3. Whitehouse a former South African and Junior Wimbledon Champion, started off strongly, breaking serve in the opening game and lead of 3-0 in the first set. But 24 year old Scholtz proved to be just too experienced for the former South African and he broke the big Whitehouse left handed serve twice to take the set on the tie breaker and second set 6-3. Scholtzs next opponent in the last eight will be fifth-seeded Javier Pulgar-Garcia of Spain.
18-year-old South African Lloyd Harris needed just 55 minutes to sideline his Australian opponent Stefan Vujic 6-2 6-1 and in the quarterfinals will go up against the eighth-seeded Italian Luca Pancaldi.
Pancaldi ended the fine run of South African junior Timothy Dollman winning 6-4 6-2. The Italian will have to pull out all the stops against Harris on Friday. Harris once again delivered an impressive game on court Thursday and is definitely one of the most exciting players to watch in the tournament.
Seventh seed Keith-Patrick Crowley of Cape Town beat American Collin Johns 6-3 7-6 (2) to book his place in the quarterfinals. Crowley will be hoping for another good day when he goes up against the top-seeded Pascal Brunner of Austria on Friday. Other Thursday second round winners in the men’s were; third seed Lucas Miedler of Austria and sixth seed James Marsalek of Great Britain.
The only South African woman to make it to through the second round is sixth seed Madrie le Roux, who had a convincing victory over the unseeded Canadian Annie-Sophie Courteau. Le Roux beat Courteau 6-2 6-1 and will face Britain’s Gabriella Taylor in Friday’s quarterfinals.
The other seeded women did not experience much joy in the second round. Seventh seed Alexandra Riley was upset by Namibia’s Lesedi Jacobs 1-6 2-6. Top seeded Naomi Totka of Hungary needed two and a half hours to beat Zimbabwe’s Valeria Bhunu 6-3 7-5 after trailing 3-5 in the second set.
In the day’s biggest upset, China’s Dan Ni Wang shocked second seed Jasmin Jebawy of Germany 6-2 6-3.
Other Thursday second round winners in the women’s singles were fifth seed Luisa Huber and eighth seed Amelie Intert both of Germany and third seed Jaeda Daniel of USA.
Fridays quarterfinals start at 10:00.
