UPSET WIN: Katie Boulter of Great Britain upstaged top seed Hsu Ching-Wen of Chinese Taipei 6-2, 6-1 in the third round of the girls singles competition yesterday. — Photo by Davidson Kho
KUCHING: More seeded players exited from the third round of the 21st Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (I) ITF Junior Circuit (Grade 1) held at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association Tennis Centre yesterday.
The biggest casualty was the girls’ top seed Hsu Ching-Wen of Chinese Taipei who crashed out in straight sets 2-6, 1-6 to 15th seed Katie Boulter of Great Britain.
Katie, ITF ranked No. 101, will play seventh seed Mami Adachi of Japan in today’s quarterfinals after the latter took three sets to tame her Filipino opponent Maika Jae Tanpocco 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-3.
Hsu was joined at the sidelines by third seed Nina Stojanovic of Serbia who lost 2-6, 6-7(2) to unseeded Japanese Kyoka Okamura.
Kyoka’s next opponent is China’s Wang Yan who disposed of qualifier Miki Kobayashi of Japan 6-4, 6-1 in another third round match.
Two other seeded players Katherine Ip of Hong Kong and Thailand’s Kamonwan Buayam also fell by the wayside, with the former upstaged by 12th seed Katrine Isabel Steffensen 6-1, 6-3 and the latter losing 0-6, 3-6 to fifth seed Hikari Yamamoto of Japan.
Katrine will meet fourth seed Xu Shilin of China while Hikari will take on second seed Ipek Soylu of Turkey who brushed aside India’s Naiktha Bains in straight sets of 7-5, 6-0.
In the boys’ singles contest, Sumit Nagal of India continued his impressive run by seeing off the challenge of 15thseed Maxime Janvier of France 7-5, 6-1.
Waiting for him in the last eight is fifth seed Cameron Norrie of New Zealand who whitewashed ninth seed Omar Jasika of Australia 6-0, 6-0.
The top seed Borna Coric of Croatia cruised into the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-0 win over 13th seed Evan Hoyt of Great Britain.
He will play eighth seed Bradley Mousely from Australia in today’s quarterfinal.
The other quarterfinalists are 16th seed Takashi Saito who will take on South Korean sixth seed Kim Young Seok while seventh seed Harry Bourcher of Australia is pitted against 14th seed Kang Ku Keon of South Korea.
Malaysia’s challenge in the girls doubles also ended yesterday when national top pair of Aslina Chua and Alyssa Boey were beaten 6-1, 6-1 by a combined pair of Kamonwan Buayam (Thailand) and Kim Dabin (South Korea), the tournament sixth seeds in the second round.
Australian pair Naiktha Bains and Olivia Tjandramulia staged an upset when they beat second seeds Ipek Soylu (Turkey) and Nina Stojanovic (Serbia) in straight sets of 6-4, 6-3 to book their place in the semi-finals.
Joining the Aussies in the last four were seventh seeds Klaartje Liebens (Belgium) and Barbora Stefkova (Czech Republic) who ousted fourth seeds Katherine Ip (Hong Kong) and Katrine Isabel Steffensen (US) 6-1, 6-3.
The other semi-finals will be fought between top seeds Hsu Ching-Wen (Chinese Taipei) and Xu Shilin (China) and third seeds Mami Adachi-Hikari Yamamoto (Japan).
Hsu-Xu survived a scare from sixth seeds Kamonwan Buayam (Thailand) and Kim Dabin (South Korea) when they lost 0-6 in the second set after winning the first set 6-4. In the decider, they broke their opponents 10-8 in a tie-break.
Mami-Hikari took 1 hour and 42 minutes to overcome eighth seeds Usue Maltane Arconada (US) and Britt Geukens (Belgium) 6-2, 6-7(5) 10-4.
In the boys’ doubles competition, the top two seeds Luke Bambridge (Great Britain) and Bornia Coric, Harry Bourcher (Australia) and Cameron Norrie (New Zealand) entered the last four after beating Japanese pair Toshiki Matsuya-Rotaro Matsumura 6-4, 4-6, 10-7 and British pair Jonny O’Mara-Alexander Sendegeya 6-4, 6-4 respectively.
Bambridge-Coric will play unseeded French pair of Ronan Joncour-Alexendre Muller while Bourcher-Norrie will take on the pair from Chinese Taipei Chen Wei-Jen and Tang Chih-Chun in the semi-finals.