KUCHING: There were no Malaysian survivors left in both the boys and girls singles competitions as the 24th Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (II) ITF Junior Tennis Championship (Grade 3) entered its second day at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association tennis centre yesterday.
Tessah Andrianjafitrimo returns a shot from the US Nguyen Tiffany Linh in their second round (last 32) match in the girls singles competition yesterday. Tessah won 6-0, 6-0. — Photos by Teo Chi Wei
The day’s matches were delayed by rain which interrupted play twice.
In the boys singles contest, the country’s best hope Koay Hao Seng could only offer some resistance before losing 3-6, 2-6 to South African Okkie Kellerman, the eighth seed.
Suresh Singh Seth lost 1-6, 1-6 to Anthony Susanto of Indonesia and Shamirul Shahri Mohd Adam Das fell 1-6, 2-6 to Tiago Cacao from Portugal while 12th seed Nawakam Khunjan of Thailand whitewashed Suresh Darrshan 6-0, 6-0.
The only upset of the day in singles was tournament second seed Francois Kellerman of South Africa, the ITF No. 153 player, who lost 6-1, 1-6, 3-6 to ITF No. 743 from Denmark August Holmgren.
Holmgren’s next opponent in the last 16 is wild card entry Artem Vu of Vietnam who disposed of 14th seed Hendrawan Susanto of Indonesia 6-2, 7-5.
There was no trouble for top seed and ITF No. 111 Djurabeck Karimov as the Uzbek player demolished India’s Udayan Bhakar 6-0, 6-4 to meet Sebastien Butler, the 15th seed from Great Britain in the third round after the latter beat Philip Hjorth of Denmark 6-2, 6-3 yesterday.
The third and fourth seeds were also safely through, with Garvit Batra of India beating Nguyen David Marshall of the US 6-3, 7-6(5) and Scott Jones of Australia registering an impressive 6-1, 6-1 win over Hyunh Hung Minh of Vietnam.
Meanwhile, Tessah Andrianjafitrimo justified her status as the girls singles top seed as she blanked American wild card entry Nguyen Tiffany Linh 6-0, 6-0 to set up a last 16 clash with Chinese Taipei’s Chen Tzu-Hui after the 13th seed saw off the challenge from Huibre-Mare Botes of South Africa 6-2, 6-2.
The second seed from India Vasanthi Shinde eased to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Wu Ssu-Yi of Chinese Taipei and she will next play Thailand’s Yinglak Jittakoat, the 15th seed who defeated Japan’s Myu Kageyama 6-1, 6-2.
Others who made it to the last 16 included unseeded Linnea Bjork of Sweden, Eden Richardson of Great Britain, Sarvinoz Saidhujaeva of Uzbekistan, Youmizhuma Youmizhuma and Duzhima Duzhima of China, Ng Kwan Yau of Hong Kong, Louise-Marie Botes of South Africa, Gozal Ainitdinova of Kazakhstan, Chen Pei Hsuan of Chinese Taipei and Komola Umarova of Uzbekistan.
In the boys doubles, the combination of Tiago Cacao (Portugal) and Saida’lo Saidkarimov became the first pair to reach the last eight when they beat Malaysia’s Shamirul Shahri Mohd Adam Mas-Mohd Safian Muhammad Asyraff 6-1, 6-1.
There was another upset when the second-seeded pair of Garvit Batra (India) and Scott Jones (Australia) was booted out in the second round by another combined pair Chan Chak Yin (Hong Kong) and Yu Hua-Chen (Chinese Taipei) 6-1, 6-3.
Also through to the quarterfinals were Thailand pair Nawakam Khunjan-Vorachon Rakpuangchon, the fifth seeds, who overcame the Malaysian pair Ganesan Yugantaarshwar-Darrsahn Suresh 6-1, 6-0.
As at 6pm, the other doubles matches were ongoing.