Nik Scholtz through to second final

Roelofse was the third seeded player Scholtz has beaten this week and he has taken the scalps of seven seeded players in the nine matches he has played at Sun City.

Last week, Scholtz captured the Futures 2 title and will go into Fridays’ final on a nine match winning streak.

In the first set, Scholtz and Roelofse held serve throughout and the set inevitably went into the tie-breaker.

Scholtz played a smart breaker returning well but at 3-3 Roelofse served a rare double fault, giving Scholtz the mini-break and advantage.

“I knew going into the match that Ruan serves big and plays his forehand well,” Scholtz said.

Roelofse shocked top seed Dean O’Brien in the quarterfinals using his big serve and forehand to full advantage.

“I felt I played a good first set and anything could have happened,” Roelofse said.

“I served well and felt good but in the second set Nik was by far the better player” said Roelofse following his loss.”

In the second set, Scholtz broke serve in the opening game and then raced to a 4-0 lead.

Roelofse held serve in the fifth game but that was the only game he was to win in the set as Scholtz broke him three times to win the second set 6-1 and earn himself a spot in the final.

In Friday’s final, Scholtz will play fellow South African Fritz Wolmarans, who beat sixth seeded Swede Milos Sekulic 4-6 6-3 6-4 in his semi-final.

Wolmarans won the first Futures 1 title and lost in the semi-final of last week’s Futures 2 event and Friday’s match will be the first meeting between him and Scholtz.

“I didn’t play a pretty match. I struggled to work a game plan against Milos, he is a tough player to read,” said Wolmarans.

“On Friday it’s the big face-off between Nik and I, both won a title here at Sun City so on court Friday the winner will take it all.”

In the women’s singles, top seed Chanel Simmonds of South Africa beat junior Ilze Hattingh 6-4 7-5 in her semi-final.

“I really wanted this win after losing to Ilze last week,” Simmonds said of her Futures 2 quarterfinal defeat to Hattingh.

“I didn’t play my best but I played solid. Ilze was really motivated out there and made me fight hard for the win.”

In Friday’s final Simmonds will play fellow South African Madrie Le Roux, who caused a minor upset when she sidelined second seed Clothilde de Bernardi of France 5-7 6-3 6-1.

Simmonds and Le Roux have played each other once before in the Futures event of Potchefstroom two years ago. Simmonds won that encounter in straight sets.

– Sapa