Van is no joke for Kiwi

The sight in opposition of a fierce-looking New Zealander in all-black attire has invariably been a supreme motivating factor for all Springbok rugby players.

At the Arthur Ashe Tennis Centre in Jabavu on Thursday it seemed to have the same affect on Izak van der Merwe as the South African Davis Cup player produced an inspired performance to beat big-serving, 6ft 3in Daniel King-Turner 6-4 6-1 in a Soweto Open quarter-final in which the New Zealander was also adorned in a menacing all-black outfit.

In a battle of awesome servers, Van der Merwe won the last six games in a row and ultimately reduced a dangerous opponent into no more than a frustrated and erratic adversary as he qualified for a semi-final match-up against Alexander Peya of Austria.

Peya has recently beaten Van der Merwe twice, but the towering South African says he is “out for revenge” — and with a repeat of the form against King-Turner and in conditions ideally suited to his serve-and-volley game there must be a fighting chance of him achieving his objective.

Peya, however, also proved his mettle in the quarter-finals by overcoming the dangerous Gilles Muller, who is renowned as a giant-killer, with the 1-6 6-3 6-3 winning margin underlining his fighting qualities.

Although Van der Merwe was a convincing winner in the end against King-Turner, the match was tantalisingly in the balance until the third game of the second set when the South African broke service in what turned out to be a marathon 18-point battle.

Although Van der Merwe is noted for his power-hitting and intimidating serve it was his improved passing shots from the baseline that gave him the breakthrough at this stage against an opponent rated 43 places higher in the ATP world rankings.

And Van der Merwe was a model of consistency against a player who mixed a succession of aces with eight debilitating double faults.

Meanwhile, Dustin Brown of Jamaica won two matches in one day and qualified to play dangerous Swede Stephane Bohli in the other men’s semi-final.

For the second time in two years at the Soweto Open a top-seeded Briton failed to reach the final stages of the women’s singles. Last year it was Katie O’Brien and this time it was the 59th world-ranked Elena Baltacha, who on Thursday went down 2-6 7-6 (2) 6-4 to Australian Jarmilla Groth in a gruelling, evenly-contested 1hr 56min marathon.

Apart from eventually proving her mastery over the top seed, the 22 year-old Groth, who immigrated with her family to Australia when she was six, also showed her potential as a bee-keeper by using her racket to good effect on the court to ward off being stung.

There were no problems for Thailand’s second-seeded Tamarine Tanasugarn, however, with the one-time world top 20 player moving into the semi-finals when Austria’s Patricia Mayr retired with a leg injury when trailing 4-0 in the first set.

Tanasugarn now plays Luxembourg’s Mandy Minella, who beat fifth-seeded Mariya Koryttseva of The Ukraine 6-3 4-6 6-3 in the quarter-finals after earlier in the tournament accounting for 17 year-old South African prodigy Chanel Simmonds.

And Van der Merwe completed a triumphant day by qualifying for the men’s doubles final with fellow-South African Davis Cup squad member Raven Klaasen.