SA stars through to quarters at SA Open

Sithole booked his spot in the quads quarterfinals after a comfortable 6-0 6-1 victory over Swede Petter Edstrom. Montjane progressed to the women’s singles quarterfinals with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Mariska Venter.

“This is one of the biggest tournaments for me, and I want to use it to attack that number one spot,” said world number two Sithole. He again seems on course to meet world number one David Wagner in the quads final.

Wagner beat him in the final of last week’s Gauteng Open and the American progressed easily on Wednesday with a 6-2 6-1 victory over South Africa’s Bongani Dlamini.

“I took a lot from last week and which I worked on in this match. Moving my opponent around the court was one of them,” said Sithole.

Both Sithole and Wagner will have a new threat to deal with this week in Britain’s Andrew Lapthorne, the winner of this title for the past two years.

Lapthorne is also through to the quarters following a 6-1 6-1 victory over Israel’s Itay Erinlib.

“I’ve won this event the last two years and I just seem to love it,” Lapthorne said.

“My game seems to suit the altitude and the courts here. The first match is always tough and you don’t know how you’re going to play, so it’s always good to get it out of the way quite quickly and move on to the next one.”

The adjustment to the high altitude in Johannesburg was an initial concern for many of the top seeds. It was a factor that ensured Montjane had to work a little harder than she would have liked in her women’s singles match against Venter.

“It’s always important to get the job done so I’m glad I could pull it through,” Montjane said.

“But the higher altitude means you need to be careful. The balls wear out quickly so you lose that grip on the ball, and I struggled with that control.

“It takes one game like this to figure it out, but the conditions are different so I think you need to be ready for anything from any player.”

World number one Sabine Ellerbrock echoed these sentiments after her 6-1 6-0 victory over South African Pauline Helouin.

“The balls are bouncing higher here so you have to get used to that. But I feel good and I’m prepared for the quarterfinals,” she said of a women’s singles draw. It has been boosted with the addition of two more world top 10 players this week in Aniek van Koot and Marjolein Buis of the Netherlands. Both also won on Wednesday.

In the men’s singles, last week’s Gauteng Open champion and world number two Stephane Houdet led the charge into the quarterfinals with a 6-0 6-1 victory over Lhaj Boukartach.

– Sapa