Katie Boulter
WINNING COMBINATION: Luke Bambridge of Great Britain (left) discusses game strategy with his Croatian partner Borna Coric during their boys doubles semi-finals match against the French pair of Ronan Joncour and Alexandre Muller yesterday. Bambridge-Coric won 7-6(2), 6-2 to enter the final. — Photos by Davidson Kho
KUCHING: The wind of upsets continued to blow on the fourth day of competition at the 21st Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (I) ITF Junior Circuit (Grade 1) when more seeded players were sent packing in the singles quarterfinals yesterday.
Boys’ 16th seed Takashi Saito of Japan had to work extra hard to beat sixth seed Kim Young Seok of South Korea 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-1 to earn a semi-final match against top seed Borna Coric from Croatia.
Coric had no problem in advancing to the last four, brushing aside eighth seed Bradley Mousely 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals played at SLTA Tennis Centre.
Seventh seed Harry Bourcher of Australia was also sent packing 6-3, 7-6(2) by 14th seed Kang Ku Keon of South Korea while India’s young tennis ace Sumit Nagal’s impressive run came to a halt after he was defeated 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 by fifth seed Cameron Norrie of New Zealand. Norrie will play Kang in today’s semi-final.
The girls’ singles action saw 15th seed Katie Boulter extending her winning streak when she claimed the scalp of seventh seed Mami Adachi of Japan with a 7-5, 6-2 win.
Meanwhile, China’s camp showed they meant business with two of its players securing their places in the last four.
Fourth seed Xu Shilin disposed of 12th seed Katrine Isabel Steffensen 6-3, 6-2 while unseeded Wang Yan defeated Kyoka Okamura of Japan 6-3, 6-2 to set up a semi-final clash with second seed Ipek Soylu.
The Turk player beat fifth seed Hikari Yamamoto from Japan 6-1, 6-2.
Wang will battle Boulter for the spot in the final.
Meanwhile, two more seeded pairs were booted out of the girls’ doubles semi-finals when top seeds Hsu Ching Wen (Chinese Taipei) and her partner from China Xu Shilin suffered a 1-6, 3-6 shocking loss to Japanese pair of Mami Adachi and Hikari Yamamoto, the third seeds, in the semi-finals.
The Japanese pair will play Australian pair of Naiktha Bains-Olivia Tjandramulia in today’s final after the unseeded Aussies defeated seventh seeds Klaartje Liebens (Belgium) and Barbora Stefkova (Czech Republic) 1-6, 6-4, 10-7.