FULL CONCENTRATION: Daisuke Sumizawa of Japan is all focus as he hits a return to Malaysia’s Alvin Teng Wee Jie in the boys’ singles quarterfinal match at the SLTA tennis centre yesterday. Daisuke won 7-5, 6-0. — Photo by Davidson Kho
KUCHING: Daisuke Sumizawa continued his winning run in the boys’ singles of the ongoing 8th Asian 14 and under series tennis championship after beating Malaysia’s Alvin Teng Wee Jie in straight sets in the quarter-finals held at Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) tennis centre yesterday.
The unseeded Japanese lad, who upset third seed Talhah Mohamad Rahizam of Malaysia 6-3, 6-1 in the first round, faced strong resistance from Alvin in the first set before winning 7-5.
He went on to blank the Malaysian 6-0 in the second set to set up a semi-final clash with tournament’s top seed Alan Sou Ming Chun from Hong Kong.
Alan bounced back from one set down to beat Thailand’s Pattanapong Borisutpong 3-6,
6-2, 6-2 in the other exciting match.
Today’s semi-final match will be played between fourth seed, Sherwin Foo of Singapore and second seed, Eric Olivarez Jr of the Philippines after they defeated India’s Kabir Manrai 6-1, 6-0 and Japan’s Yunosuke Tanaka 6-4, 7-6(4) respectively.
In the girls’ singles, Ma Yexin had a lucky break when her quarter-final opponent, the top seed Saba Najafi Dehagi retired in the second set due to injury.
Saba lost 3-6 in the first set but was leading Ma 4-1 in the second when she got injured, thus conceding the game to her opponent.
Ma’s next opponent is fifth seed, Shamira Azzahra of Indonesia who ousted India’s Kaaviya Balasubramaniam of India 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.
Second seed, Snehal Mane from India booked her semi-finals ticket after overcoming Philippine’s Khim Iguplas 6-3, 6-2 in the other quarter-final played yesterday.
Meanwhile, the top pair of Eric Olivarez Jr (Philippines) and Sherwin Foo (Singapore) reached the boys doubles final when they defeated Chinese Taipei’s pair of Lai Kuan-Cheng and Li Bo-han 6-0, 6-1.
Their final opponents are the unseeded pair of Vorachon Rakpuangchoi and Pattanapong Borisutpong from Thailand who were 6-0, 6-2 winners over Malaysia’s Talhah Mohamad Rahizam and Sheikh Ameer Sheikh Ahmad in the semi-finals.
In the girls’ doubles competition, the Philippines pair of Khim Iglupas and Rafaella Jean Villanueva were the first pair to reach the final when they beat the combined pair of Nicole Tan Y-Kit (Singapore) and Shamira Azzahra (Indonesia) 6-4, 6-1 in the semi-finals yesterday.
The other semi-final was won by the top seeded Indian pair of Snehal Mane and Kaaviya Balasubramaniam who beat China’s pair of Ting Lu Hui and Ma Yexin 6-4, 7-5.