Seeds Of An Open Victory
Illawarra Mercury
Friday February 3, 2006
SLOVAKIAN top seed Jarmilla Gajdosova put the finishing touches on a dominant display by cruising to victory in yesterday's Wollongong Open women's final. Gajdosova did not drop a set in progressing to the final and maintained her superb run by downing second seed Daniella Dominikovic of Sydney 6-2 6-2 at Beaton Park. The 18-year-old world No 118, who appeared in the first round of last month's Australian Open in Melbourne, broke Dominikovic's serve twice in each set to pocket the $2000 winner's cheque. Earlier in the day, Gajdosova reached the final by eliminating Blakehurst's third seed Lara Picone 6-4 6-2 while Dominikovic knocked out another Sydneysider, the seventh-seeded Monique Lynch 6-2 6-2. In the men's event, Canberra's Alun Jones also lived up to his top seed status by beating Adam Feeney of the Central Coast 7-6 (10-8) 6-3. Feeney, the second seed, held a couple of set points during the tense first-set tie-break but Jones fought back to claim the set. Jones didn't look back from that point, breaking Feeney in the second set to claim $2250 and valuable rankings points on the Australian Money Tournaments tour. The South African-born 25-year-old defeated Sydney's ninth seed Jurek Stasiak 6-4 6-4 in the semi-finals. Feeney had a tougher time progressing to the final - he started slowly before overcoming sixth-seeded United States left-hander Carsten Ball 3-6 6-3 6-3.
© 2006 Illawarra Mercury