'Hard worker' Valentova continues strong Australian Open juniors run

It was 5.40pm when second seed Tereza Valentova breezed into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open Junior Championships with a 6-2 6-1 win over Japan’s Hayu Kinoshita.

The temperature on court 5 showed 27 degrees but it felt hotter and the stadium, which has just one large stand, felt busier than the nearby Finders St train station throughout the 55-minute match, such were the comings and goings among the crowd. Save for the numbers - there were about 60 spectators present at the end - it could have been the Mets or the Yankees baseball in downtown New York such was the incessant busyness. 

Oddly, it did not detract from the atmosphere. This was a cracking occasion. Valentova was unperturbed by the distractions and simply got on with her game, never glancing up at the noise once. 

Off court she is delightful, “a very nice, kind person," said her former coach Daniel Filjo, tennis coach at the Sparta Praha sports club, afterwards.

On court she has a killer persona, her devastating backcourt game destroyed the diminutive Kinoshita, who never gave up despite the mauling.

So, is Valentova destined to become the next Australian Open girls' singles champion?

“We hope she can win,” said Filjo, who was sat alongside Jan Prihoda who has coached Valentova for the past six months.

“She has the confidence to do well here and she can," he said. "She has the experience from last year when she reached the third round. She’s a very hard worker and her movement is very good."

Valentova will play ninth seed Alina Korneeva next. It will be an uphill task for the Russian. 

Eighth seed Nina Vargova and Ena Koike, No. 11, were the highest-ranked seeds to fall on Wednesday while Russia’s unseeded Alevtina Ibragimova teed off against her great friend Yaroslava Bartashevich (the 14th seed), who moved from Moscow to Paris two years ago to further her tennis ambitions.

Surprisingly it was the unseeded Ibragimova who prevailed 7-6 6-4. On winning the match she showed no emotion before walking steadily to the net where she and Bartashevich exchanged five quick, personalised ‘handshakes’ - fists, elbows, palms and so on - an uplifting snapshot for anyone present happening to look that way. Sportsmanship and friendship at its best.

Meanwhile Britain’s Ranah Akua Stoiber lost her way in the middle of her match against against Germany’s unseeded Ella Seidel but somehow pulled herself together to win 6-2 3-6 6-4.

Of the eight remaining players, only two - Ibragimova and Poland’s Weronika Ewald (who put out Koike) - are unseeded. Valentova though, and possibly by some distance, remains the player to beat.