Yu brothers lift CM Cup doubles title

0

Girls doubles champion Park Sohyun and Mananchaya Sawangkaew pose with their trophies at the SLTA tennis court yesterday. — Photos by Chai Chang Yu

Boys doubles champion Yu Chieh Cheng and Yu Chen-Hua pose with their trophies at the SLTA tennis court yesterday. — Photos by Chai Chang Yu

KUCHING: Taiwan’s surprise package Yu Chieh Cheng and Yu Chen-Hua lifted the men’s doubles crown the 30th Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (II) ITF Junior Circuit (Grade 3) after a hard fought three-set win over Indian pair Megh Bhargav Patel and Digvijay Pratap Singh at the SLTA Tennis Centre yesterday.

The Yu brothers had lost the first set 2-6 but bounced back strongly to win the second set 6-2 and the super tie-breaker 10-6 against the tournament fourth seeds.

In the girls doubles final, the champions were also decided on a three-setter, with the combination of top seeds Park Sohyun (South Korea) and Mananchaya Sawangkaew (Thailand) winning the first set 6-2 but lost 2-6 in the second to their opponents the fourth seeds from Indonesia Priska Madelyn Nugroho and Janice Tjen.

The super tie-breaker saw Park-Mananchaya triumph 10-5.

Meanwhile, Malaysian challenger Christian Didier Chin’s winning run in the boys singles competition was brought to a halt yesterday when he was upstaged 6-3, 7-5 by seventh seed Rinky Hijikata of Australia.

The ITF No 222 will now take on third seed Digvijay Pratap Singh of India who secured a 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 win over the second seed from Japan Seita Watanabe in the other semi-final.

After winning the girls doubles, Mananchaya is set for a double win at this championship as she successfully advanced to today’s girls final where she will play China Wang Jiaqi for the title.

The Thai lass, seeded number four, had upset tournament top seed from China Zheng Qinwen 6-1, 6-2 with her fast-paced play while Wang tamed 12th seed from Australia Ivana Popovic 7-5, 6-4 in the other semi-final.