Coric set for a double victory

0

KUCHING: Borna Coric is a step away from winning the boys singles title yesterday after he easily dismissed 16th seed sixth Takashi Saito 6-1, 6-3 in the semi-finals of the 21st Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (I) ITF Junior Circuit (Grade 1).

THEY MADE IT HAPPEN: Finalists of the girls doubles pose with Liew and organising committee members.

THEY MADE IT HAPPEN: Finalists of the girls doubles pose with Liew and organising committee members.

The tournament favourite and top seed from Croatia and ITF No. 6 player is expected to beat South Korean challenger Kang Ku Keon, the 14th seed, in today’s final as Kang had to take three sets to overcome his Kiwi opponent Cameron Norrie.

Kang had won the first set 6-1 but Norrie, the fifth seed, recovered to win the second set 6-2.

In the decider, Kang played a good game to triumph 6-2.

The Croatian lad is also in line for a double win after winning the boys doubles title yesterday with his partner from Great Britain, Luke Bambridge.

Coric-Bambridge, the top seeds who faced the pair of Harry Bourchier (Australia) and Cameron Norrie (New Zealand), seeded No. 2, in the final, won the first set 6-3. But it was not plain sailing as the second seeds clawed back to level 6-6 in the second set to force play into a tie-break but the top seeds prevailed 7-6(5) to lift the title.

The girls singles final will be fought between the top two seeds who advanced to the final in different styles.

While it took second seed Ipek Soylu of Turkey real efforts to see off the stiff challenge from China fourth seed Xu Shilin 6-4 and 7-6(2), it was easy for the top seed Katie Boulter of Great Britain as she did not even have to lift her racket after her opponent from China Wang Yan conceded a walkover.

Meanwhile, the Australian pair of Naiktha Bains and Olivia Tjandramulia completed their good run in the girls doubles competition when they upstaged third seeds from Japan Mami Adachi and Hikari Yamamoto 6-3, 6-2 in the final.