UPSET WIN: Pakistan’s Syed Nofil Kaleem readies to hit a backhand return to his opponent from Sri Lanka Andrew Muttiah during the second singles of the Boys U-14 Group C match at the Asia-Oceania Pre-Qualifying for World Junior Team Boys yesterday. Syed Nofil won 6-2, 6-1. — Photo by Davidson Kho
KUCHING: Pakistan caused a big upset at the Asia Oceania Pre-Qualifying World Junior Tennis Team championship after they defeated third seed Sri Lanka in the Boys Under-14 Group C match yesterday.
Played at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) Tennis Centre, Muzanmil Murtaza gave Pakistan the lead after he defeated Aadavan Pushparaj 6-3, 7-6(6) in the first single match.
His teammate, Syed Nofil Kaleem followed up with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Andrew Muttiah to give the team the second point. Muzanmil partnered Abdaal Haider to beat Muttiah-Jerique Rajapakse 6-4, 6-3 to wrap up the match 3-0.
With the win, Pakistan topped the group table with two points from two wins ahead of Sri Lanka who has one point while Turkmenistan was sent packing after two defeats.
Pakistan will join Vietnam and Singapore in the tussle for the top six positions.
In Group B, second seeds Singapore were made to sweat for their 3-0 win by Yemen who put up a good fight before bowing out.
The first singles match saw Enzo Chua struggling to win the first set 7-6(2) against Aziz Ahmed but he won the second with relative ease 6-1.
It took Law Tze Ming three sets to tame Belal Al-Huraibi 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the second singles but Tomothy Kuah-Enzo Chua were up to the task when they dispatched off Fahmi Al-Ward and Aziz 6-1, 6-1 in the doubles.
In the tussle for the top spot in Group A between top seeds Vietnam and Syria, it was the former who triumphed at 3-0.
Vinh Quang Nguyen Mali eased to a 6-0, 6-1 win over Rabee Sleem in the first singles and Dac Tien Nguyen overcame Mohamad Hazem Naw 6-0, 6-2 while Dac Tien Nguyen-Tri Tu Minh defeated Rabee and Karim Cikhhal Al Basateneh 6-2, 6-1 in the doubles.
The play-off for first to fourth placings for the Girls Under-14 between Vietnam and Sri Lanka had to be stopped due to heavy rain which started at 4.20pm.
Minh Phuong Nguyen Ngoc had taken the lead for Vietnam after she beat Rukisha Wijesuriya 7-5, 6-3 but Medira Samarasinghe leveled the score 1-1 for Sri Lanka when she beat Tiffany Linh Nguyen 6-4, 7-5 in the second singles.
The doubles was also level, with Medira and Rukisha losing the first set 3-6 but they led Tiffany and Minh Phuong 3-2 in the second set.
Meanwhile, in the Asia Oceania Pre-Qualifying World Junior Fed Cup Girls U-16 competition, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka boosted their chances of qualifying for the Final Qualifying event in South Korea in April after both registered three wins.
It was almost a walk in the park for Kazakhstan as they blanked Jordan 3-0 in Group A.
Darya Shevchenko eased past Alice Muasher 6-2, 6-1 in the first singles while Assel Jumamukhambetova white-washed Rama Bageen 6-0, 6-0.
Rama and Alice were simply outclassed in the doubles by Assel and Gozal Ainitdinova, losing 0-6, 0-6 to the Kazakh pair.
In the other Group A match, Sri Lanka, who won the first and second singles against Kyrgzstan through Kavindya De Silva and Nethmie Waduge, conceded the doubles match to win 2-1.
Also playing in the same group, Pakistan beat Iran 3-0 to finish third with two points from two wins and one loss.