Rising New Zealand tennis player Eden Marama downed her doubles partner in straight sets to advance to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open junior girls' singles yesterday.
Marama, 16 and appearing at the tournament for the first time, used her impressive power game to beat Madalina Gojnea, of Romania, 6-4, 6-4.
She struck 25 winners, including 16 at the net, to overcome the steady baseline shots of Gojnea.
Marama was 1-3 down in the second set, but rallied to break Gojnea's serve.
Gojnea was given a warning for racket abuse as she dropped her serve and appeared to lose concentration as 14th seed Marama served to equal the scores at 3-3.
Leading 5-4, Marama again broke serve for the match to become the first New Zealand junior to reach the Australian Open junior singles quarter-finals since current New Zealand No. 2 player Leanne Baker in 1999.
In the quarter-finals the former Wellington player will take on ninth seed Viktoria Kutzova from the Ukraine, who yesterday beat Czech eighth seed Andrea Hlavackova 6-2, 6-2.
- NZPA
Tennis: Quarter-finals spot for junior
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