Olivia Tjandramulia (right) and Naiktha Bairns of Australia celebrate their 6-1, 6-4 win over Mayuka Aikawa and Mihika Yadav in the girls doubles semi-final at SLTA tennis centre yesterday. — Photos by Chai Chang Yu
Lucie Kankova of the Czech Republic rolled into the semi-finals of the girls singles of the 25th Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (I) ITF Junior Tennis Championship (Grade 1) yesterday after beating Mihika Yadav 6-4, 7-6(4).
KUCHING: Czech challenger Lucie Kankova edged closer to her dream of winning the girls singles title at the 25th Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (I) ITF Junior Tennis Championship (Grade 1) at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association courts yesterday.
The 15-year old who is ranked ITF No. 186 and the tournament 16th seed, scalped another seeded player in her impressive run this week when she overcame seventh seed Mihika Yadav from India 6-4, 7-6(4).
She will face the ninth seed Bunyawi Thamchaiwat in today’s semi-finals after the Thai lass showed her Indonesia opponent Deria Nur Haliza, the fourth seed, the exit in straight sets of 7-5, 6-0.
Lucie had a bye in the first round and enjoyed a walkover win in the second round against Jacqueline Lam Wing Chiu of Hong Kong.
On Thursday, she claimed the scalp of top seed Naiktha Bairns of Australia when she won 6-4, 6-3.
It was certainly a day of the lower seeded players, with fifth seed Olivia Tjandramulia of Australia triumphing 7-5, 6-1 over third seed Pranjala Yadlapalli of India while sixth seed Maddison Inglis of Australia upstaged second seed player from China Zheng Wushuang 7-6(5), 6-2 in the other quarterfinal.
Olivia and Maddison will vie for the right to play in tomorrow’s final.
Both are also on track in the girls doubles as they progressed into today’s final with their respective partners Naiktha Bairns and Petra Hule.
Naiktha-Olivia easily beat the Japan-India combination of Mayuka Aikawa and Mihika Yadav, the third seeds, 6-1, 6-4 while sixth-seeded Petra-Maddison dumped the fourth seeds Cho I-hsuan (Chinese Taipei) and Wei Zhanlan (China) 6-4, 6-4 in yesterday’s semi-finals.
In the boys singles, top seed Jumpei Yamasaki suffered an upset 4-6, 3-6 defeat to his South Korean opponent Kwon Soon Woo, the sixth seed.
Kwon’s next opponent is Vietnam’s Nam Hoang Ly who beat China’s Wu Yibing 6-3, 6-4.
The other semi-final will be played between Alberto Lim of the Philippines and second seed Oh Chan-Yeong of South Korea after they dismissed their challengers Isa Mammetgulyyev of Turkmenistan 6-1, 6-3 and Wu Tung-lin of Chinese Taipei 6-4, 7-6(3) respectively.
Meanwhile, Alberto Lim will partner Nam Hoang Ly to vie for the boys doubles crown with China’s Wu Hao and Wu Yibing in today’s final.