Top seed Charlotte Robillard-Millette of Canada making racket preparation for a backhand return yesterday.
Khumoun Sultanov
KUCHING: The second day of the 27th Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (I) ITF Junior Tennis Championship (Grade 1) saw two top-five seeded players in the girls singles making their early exit at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) tennis centre yesterday.
Australian Lin Baijing, the ITF No. 46 player and China’s Cao Siqi, ITF No. 47, lost 0-6, 6-7(2) to ITF No. 295 Czech Republic’s Karolina Berankova and Chinese Taipei’s Liang En Shuo 7-6(1), 3-6, 6-7(6) respectively in yesterday’s second round. Karolina will next play the winner of the other match between Chinese Taipei’s Cho Yi Tsen and 15th seed Naho Sato from Japan while Liang shall meet 13th seed Mihika Yadav from India in round three.
The top two seeds booked their places in the third round, with No.1 seed Charlotte Robillard-Millete of Canada rolling past Japan’s Himari Sato 6-2, 6-0 and No.2 seed Yuki Naito of Japan ousting Viktoria Morayova of Slovakia 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.
There are no Malaysian representative left in the girls singles competition round as Suhana Sofia Mohd Adam Das bowed out 1-6, 6-0, 4-6 to 14th seed from Chinese Taipei Lee Yang in the second round yesterday.
In the boys singles contest, tournament top seed Wu Yibing from China, the ITF No. 16 player, got past Jack Wong of Hong Kong 6-0, 4-6, 6-2 to set up a third round meeting with Yu Hua-Chen of Chinese Taipei, who was a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 winner over 16th seed Joshua Howard-Tripp of South Africa.
Uzbek challenger Khumoun Sultanov, the second seed, had no problem in disposing of his opponent from Chinese Taipei Tseng Chun Hsin 6-0, 6-4.
Meanwhile, third seed Alexis Canter of Great Britain is also through to the third round after sealing a 7-6(2), 6-4 victory over Han Seong Yong of South Korea.
He is joined by fourth seed from China Zhao Lingxi who enjoyed a walkover win after Sri Aakash Reddiyar failed to turn up for the match.
In the boys doubles, four pairs have advanced to the last eight after defeating their opponents.
They are second seeds Finn Bass and Alastair Gray of Great Britain who beat the Japanese pair of Takeaki Ito and Naoki Tajima 6-1, 6-3, fifth seeds Mo Ye Cong and Wu Yibing of China who defeated the Malaysian pair of Christian Didier Chin and Low Zhe Han 7-5, 6-2.
In other matches, sixth seeds from Hong Kong Anthony Jackie Tang and Jack Wong saw off the challenge from Chinese Taipei’s Tseng Chun Hsin-Yu Hua-Chen 7-6(3), 6-4 while eighth seeds of Japan Rimpei Kawakami and James Kent Trotter enjoyed a walkover win over the combined pair of Ali Mooraj (Pakistan) and Sri Aakash Reddiyar (Malaysia).
There were no upsets in the girls doubles as the top pair Zeel Desai (India) and her partner from Canada Charlotte Robillard-Millette had a first round bye to meet China’s Zhuoma Ni Ma and Mi Zhouma You in the second round.
The second seeds Mayuka Aikawa (Japan) and Lin Baijing (Australia) shall take on Liu Yani and Wang Xin Yu after the China pair defeated Joleta Budiman (Indonesia) and Suhana Mohd Adam Das (Malaysia) 6-1, 6-1.