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MELBOURNE, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- A future champion of the game, China's Wu Yibing has progressed to the semifinals of the junior boys singles at the Australian Open on Thursday after facing a stern test against Russian Alexey Zakharov.
Wu made some early mistakes -- 20 unforced errors in the first set -- that allowed the 17-year-old right hander to drag the first set out, but at 5-5 the Chinese prospect lifted to take the point, regain concentration during a rain delay and eventually win.
"I made some progress during the past several matches, after taking wins one by one, I gained lots of confidence," the boys top seed told reporters after his 7-5, 6-3 win.
"I am full of energy now and feel excited for the semifinals."
Wu, however, lost his semifinal doubles with partner Toru Horie of Japan in straight sets against Kiwi Finn Reynolds and Portugal's Duarte Vale.
China, however, has one player into the juniors doubles final with fourth seed pairing Zhao Lingxi and partner Hsu Yu Hsiou from Chinese Taipei. The pairing comprehensively defeated Australia's Alexei Popyrin and Poland's Kacper Zuk 6-1, 6-3 in just 46 minutes, with a classy and aggressive performance both deep in the backcourt and at the net.
Zhao and Hsu take on Reynolds and Vale to claim the Australian Open boys juniors crown on Friday, while Wu seeks to dispatch Israeli Yshai Oliel in his semifinal.
Peng Shuai and partner Andrea Hlavackova from the Czech Republic face second seeds American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and partner, Czech Lucie Safarova on Friday as they do battle to claim the Australian Open Women's Doubles crown.
"(I'm) so happy to enter the doubles final for the first time in Australian Open. I experienced a lot especially after my injury, and I am happy to come back to the court and took wins one after another," Peng said.
The team factor was very much involved in their semifinal clash where one player falls, the other steps in to keep the unity together. Peng felt that at 3-0 in the second set where Hlavackova brought her back into the game after getting anxious about the looming win.
"The results speaks out why we are special, we took the straight (sets) win to the final of the grand slam," Hlavackova said.
"We still have one big match ahead of us, I would like to (be) prepared the same way how (we) prepared with the quarterfinals.
"We won the teams that (are) very hard to beat, (and) there (is) only one more team waiting in the final."
