Stellenbosch, South Africa – Fiercely competitive and highly entertaining matches were the trademark on day two of the Curro Junior ITF 1 tennis tournament in Stellenbosch.
With the Boland sun beating down on the youngsters on the Coetzenburg courts of the Stellenbosch University players pulled out some great shot making and showed stamina to endure each other and the weather.
Fourth seed Sipho Montsi and fellow South African and 15th seed, Themba Makhanya, played the most epic match on the day. The two youngsters started their match at 08:00 and only finished some 246 minutes later. In the end Montsi won the thriller in three sets by 7-6, 6-7 and 6-3.
Second seed Michael Copeland battled for more than two hours to dispatch Freddie Grant from Britain with 6-3, 5-7 and 6-3. Grant struggled with cramping close to the end of the match. Bertus Kruger, third seed, also needed three sets to proceed to the next round when he fought past 13th seed Rossouw Norval by winning 3-6, 6-0 and 6-4.
The number one seeds had no such troubles and both Nicole Petchey and Timothy Dollman needed only two sets for their victories. Petchey beat Olivia Elliot (Brit) by 6-4, 6-4, while Dollman made easy work of his match against Aaron Marks (14) by winning 6-2, 6-0.
Dollman will now come up against 12th seed James Roelofse who got the better of 8th seed Lance-Pierre du Toit with a 6-0, 6-2 victory. Petchey will take on Dutch player Annick Verhaar who eliminated 7th seed Imaan Hassim with 7-5, 6-4. Second seed girl Eliz Maloney will play fifth seed Mila Hartig on Wednesday.
