Leander, Nirupama enter qualifying finals

Shailesh Soni

The two Indians on view in the Australian Open 2001 qualifiers made it to the finals of their respective singles events on Friday.

In a women's singles second round match, Nirupama Vaidyanathan defeated top seed Allison Bradshaw of the United States 6-3, 7-5 while in the men's singles, Leander Paes had things his way while beating Justin Bower of South Africa 6-3, 6-4, in a match which just took a little over an hour.

Nirupama belied expectations as she toppled the top seed American. In a match which took 1 hour and 17 minutes, the Indian hit 3 aces compared to just one by the American. She also had only two double faults and 20 unforced errors as compared to 5 and 33 by the American. Her conversion rate of break points too was better. She made good 4 of 13 while Bradshaw could capitalise on just two out of seven.

Nirupama will face 19th seed Alexandra Fusai of France in the final round match on Saturday.

Paes was just too good for Bower as he dominated the match and got a service break in each set which sufficed to take him through. The Indian scored more first and second serve winners -- 73 per cent and 75 per cent -- compared to 65 per cent and 50 per cent by the South African. Paes also had only one double fault while Bower had three.

Leander will face Marcos Ondruska of South Africa in the final round match on Saturday.

Sixteen male and 12 female qualifers will been determined when the 'qualifiers' are completed on Saturday afternoon and will be randomly placed in the singles main draws.

Last year also, both Leander and Nirupama had gone through qualifers at the Australian Open. Paes did qualify for the main draw, defeating Marcos Ondruska of South Africa in the final, whereas Nirupama lost in the qualifying final to Kerry-Anne Guse, after retiring hurt.

At the Open, Paes got past Australian Dejan Petrovic in the first round before falling to the Swede Andreas Vinciguerra in the second round.