Saville sets up rare junior double

Updated July 07, 2012 09:28:48

Australian top seed Luke Saville has advanced to the final in defence of his Wimbledon junior crown.

Saville, the world's top-ranked junior, outclassed Italian third seed Gianluigi Quinzi 6-3, 6-4 and faces an Australian Open final rematch on Sunday with Canadian fourth seed Filip Peliwo.

The 18-year-old South Australian won that Melbourne Park encounter so will be bidding to join the likes of Swedish all-time great Stefan Edberg as a triple junior grand slam champion.

Tennis great John Newcombe applauded Saville for "putting himself out there" to try to defend his title, unlike fellow Australian Ashleigh Barty, who won the girls' title last year but returned home after being knocked out in the first round of the women's singles last week.

Other prodigies like Lleyton Hewitt and Bernard Tomic ditched the juniors for the pro ranks much earlier in their careers, but Newcombe believes Saville has made the right call to stick around for one more year before taking on the big boys.

Saville is hoping to become the first player since 1974 to go back-to-back in the boys' championship at the All England Club.

"It would be absolutely huge," Saville said.

"To have my name on the honour board already is huge, but I'd love to have it on there twice - it hasn't happened in something like 38 years."

The boom teenager was forced to wait an age for the rain to stop before he could get down to business in his semi-final.

But he put the delay to good use, drawing strength from Carlton's upset victory over Collingwood at the MCG.

"I closed my eyes for a little bit and probably waited around for about five hours and watched my footy team - Carlton - win beforehand so that made me pretty happy," Saville said.

"I was trying to play a little bit like Chris Judd out there."

Although he'll be favourite to retain his title, Saville has plenty of respect for his final foe.

"He's a really good player. This will be his third (grand slam) final of the year. He made the final of the French Open as well.

"But I played really good against him at the Australian Open, so it gives me great confidence."

Reaching the final once again completes a tumultuous fortnight for Saville, who had to endure the devastation of being scratched from the men's qualifying at Wimbledon due to an administrative blunder.

The exciting youngster was granted a wildcard into qualifying but the All England Club withdrew the invitation because he'd double-booked himself into a Futures tournament in Germany.

"It was very unfortunate, but there was nothing I could have done about it when they told me about it," Saville said.

"Once that was done, there was no point dwelling on it. It was in the past."

AAP

Tags: sport, tennis, united-kingdom

First posted July 07, 2012 08:41:12

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Youzhny a double winner

Updated February 06, 2012 12:36:55

Third seed Mikhail Youzhny got back to winning ways, beating unseeded Lukas Lacko 6-2, 6-3 to win the ATP Zagreb indoor title.

The Russian collected the eighth singles title of his career and then teamed up with Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis to end the run of Croatian wildcard duo Ivan Dodig and Mate Pavic 6-2, 6-2 and become the first double winner this season.

Youzhny dominated against the 97th-ranked Slovak, breaking Lacko's serve three times on his way to his first title since Kuala Lumpur win in 2010.

"It feels really good, as it was my best match of the tournament, and that's why I won today," said Youzhny.

It was the fourth win for Youzhny over the 24-year-old Slovak.

Lacko had a good run this week ousting second seed Alex Bogomolov and 2007 champion Baghdatis en route to the final.

"He was reading me well, so I didn't have control," said Lacko.

"I wasn't nervous. I didn't play my best. He was just too good today."

AFP

Tags: tennis, sport

First posted February 06, 2012 12:36:55

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Bartoli serves Gajdosova double bagel

Updated January 04, 2012 08:53:50

Australia's world number 33 Jarmila Gajdosova broke down in tears after crashing to an embarrassing 6-0, 6-0 loss to France's Marion Bartoli at the Hopman Cup in Perth.

And to add further insult to injury, Australia was kicked out of the race to reach this year's Hopman Cup final after Lleyton Hewitt lost his singles match against Richard Gasquet, with France going on to win the tie 3-0.

Gajdosova, who started the tournament well on Sunday with a win over Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues, looked disinterested against Bartoli in a contest that lasted just 50 minutes.

The 24-year-old was broken three times in the opening set and appeared even more despondent in the second, before world number nine Bartoli ended the rout with her 12th ace of the match.

Gajdosova wiped away tears as she left the court after the match, with the sell-out crowd of 6971 stunned into silence.

"Dear fans ... I am really sorry for today," Gajdosova tweeted later in the night.

"I can't explain ... what happened today.

"Hope I didn't disappoint you too much as your support means a lot."

It was the first double bagel in a singles match at the Hopman Cup since Liz Smylie was thumped by Switzerland's Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere in 1991.

Ironically, Smylie was commentating the Gajdosova-Bartoli match.

And in a humorous twist as the match approached its end, co-commentator Fred Stolle pondered out loud: "I can't remember a (previous) double bagel here."

Smylie remained conspicuously silent after Stolle's comment.

Bartoli said she felt bad for beating Gajdosova so comprehensively.

"I'm sorry I beat her that way but I was just focusing on my own game and not looking at the scoreboard," Bartoli said.

"She's so talented and she's a lovely lady and when I saw her in tears it was really heartbreaking.

"But I can't really miss a shot just for (the sake of) missing the shot.

"I'm sure she has a great future."

World number 19 Gasquet handed France an unassailable 2-0 lead after defeating Hewitt 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 in a tick under two hours.

Hewitt, playing just his second singles match since returning from a serious foot injury, moved well and took the second set with some scrambling tennis before being overpowered in the decider.

"With Lleyton you have to be careful. I know that he's coming back but it's still Lleyton, he's still fighting," Gasquet said.

France ensured it would be a clean sweep with a 6-3, 6-4 win in the mixed doubles.

The winner of Thursday's tie between Spain and France will advance from group B, while the top-seeded Czech Republic is favoured to qualify from group A.

In Tuesday's other tie, Spain defeated China 2-1 courtesy of a 6-0, 6-2 triumph in the deciding mixed doubles.

French Open champion Li Na defeated Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-1 in the women's singles, before Fernando Verdasco levelled the tie with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Wu Di in the men's rubber.

AAP

Tags: sport, tennis, perth-6000

First posted January 04, 2012 01:03:30

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