Christian outlasts Swede in three-hour marathon match

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Christian celebrates a winning point during his second round match against Sweden’s Leyton Rivera. He won 6-4, 6-3, 7-5. — Photo by Teo Chi Wei

Girls singles top seed from China Zheng Qinwen eased past Wu Ssu-Yi of Taiwan 6-2, 6-0 in the second round.

Boys doubles fourth seeds Zhou Xinmu and Yu Bingyu of China (facing camera) in action against Lu Pengyu (China)-Arthur Craig Pantino (Philippines) in their second round match. The China pair won 4-6, 7-6(3) (10-8) to book their place in the last eight. — Photo by Chimon Upon

KUCHING: Boys singles top seed Christian Didier Chin battled his way into the third round of the 30th Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (II) ITF Junior Circuit (Grade 3) at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association Tennis Centre yesterday.

The Sabah lad, who is ITF no 81, found his opponent from Sweden Leyton Rivera a hard nut to crack as it took him more than three hours to subdue the latter in three sets.

Christian took the first set 6-4 but Leyton clawed back in the second to win 6-3.

The decider saw Christian winning 7-5 to set up a last 16 match with Nikit Reddy after the American sent 13th seed from China Zhou Ximu packing 6-3, 6-0.

However, the match took the toil on Christian as he and partner Seita Watanabe (Japan) lost 6-4, 1-6 (9-11) to the Taiwan pair of Yu Chien Cheng and Yu Hua-Chen in the second round of the boys doubles.

Second seed Seita Watanabe was safely through to the next round with a 6-2, 6-2 demolition of Theerta Shashank Macherla of India.

His next opponent is 14th seed Kasidit Samrej from Thailand.

There were quite some upsets in yesterday’s second round, with fourth seed Megh Bhargav Patel (India) falling 6-3, 3-6, 2-6 to unseeded Kim Dong Ju of South Korea, eighth seed Ng Ki Lung of Hong Kong losing 6-3, 3-6, 4-6 to Norway’s Herman Hoeyeraal and the 10th seed from India Karan Srivastava losing 6-4, 5-7, 5-7 to China’s Zhao RunYu.

In the girls singles competition, the Malaysian challenge fizzled out as its four representatives lost to their respective opponents.

Nursharneem Shamsuddin was no match for the eighth seed from South Korea Carol Lee Youngsuh who won 6-0, 6-0, and Sarawak’s Tan Lin Xin lost 1-6, 2-6 to the 16th seed Janice Tjen of Indonesia.

The Wan sisters also made their exit, with the elder Elysia losing 1-6, 3-6 to seventh seed Xiao Zheng Hua of China and the younger Elsa dumped 6-2, 6-0 by sixth seed Olivia Gadecki of Australia.

The boys doubles saw second seeds from India Megh Bhargav Patel-Digvijay Pratap Singh moving into the last eight after they defeated the combination of Nowa Matsubayshi (Japan) and Wang Le Tian (China) 6-3, 6-4.

Joining them in the quarterfinals are third seed Rinky Hijikata (Japan)-Campbell Salmon (Australia), fourth seeds Yu Bingyu-Zhou Xinmu of China and sixth seeds Gerhardt Marius Becker (South Africa)-Dylan Heap (New Zealand).

Meanwhile, the second seeds in the girls doubles Sakura Hosogi (Japan)-Wang Jiaqi (China) suffered an upset 0-6, 7-5 (10-7)defeat at the hands of Indonesian pair Salsa Aher-Joleta Budiman.

The Indonesians shall play sixth seeds Chiara Di Tommaso-Carol Lee Youngsuh (South Korea) in today’s quarterfinals.