Connor Thomson en route to the last 16 of the boy’s singles after top seed Yanki Erel retired in their encounter. — Photo by Teo Chi Wei
KUCHING: Yanki Erel of Turkey became the first major casualty in the boy’s singles competition of the 31st Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (I) ITF Junior Tennis Championship (Grade 1) at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association Tennis Centre yesterday.
The tournament’s top seed and ITF number 20 player had to retire in the second round after suffering an injury while trailing his unseeded opponent from Great Britain, Connor Thomson 4-6, 1-2. Thomson is next up against 13th seed Han Seong Yong after the South Korean blanked Hiroki Sakagawa of Japan 6-0, 6-0 in another match.
Third seeded Dalibor Svrcina of Czech Republic was safely through to the third round after he beat Japanese qualifier Taisei Kageyama 6-2, 6-0.
The fourth seed from Japan, Taisei Ichikawa, also booked his place in the next round with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 win over Germany’s Henri Squire.
There were no Malaysians left in the competition as its top hopeful Christian Didier Chin from Sabah, who is number seven seed, could not overcome the challenge from Mischa Lanz of Switzerland, losing 5-7, 3-6.
In the second round of the girl’s singles competition, six of the seeded players made the exit.
Sixth seed Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand lost 1-6, 7-5, 5-7 to Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima, seventh seed Lenka Stara of Slovakia lost in straight sets 5-7, 1-6 to Priska Madelyn Nugroho of Indonesia and the other second round losers were 10th seed Viktoria Morvayova, 11th seed Thasaporn Naklo, 12th seed Selin Ovunc, and 15th seed Rina Snigur.
However, second seed Lulu Sun of Switzerland had no problem eliminating Joleta Budiman of Indonesia 6-0, 6-1 to set up a third round match with 13th seed Cody Wong Hong Yi of Hong Kong who defeated Adrienn Nagy of Hungary 6-2, 6-3.
Top seed and ITF No 11 from Japan, Naho Sato will face 14th seed Mai Napatt Nirundorn of Thailand after taming her challenger from Switzerland Fiona Ganz 7-5, 7-5.
The third and fourth seeds Joanna Garland of Taiwan and Zheng Qinwen of China are also in the third round after beating Karolina Berankova of Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 and Natasha Sengphrachanh of Thailand 6-3, 6-1 respectively.
Malaysian wild card entry Suhana Sofia Mohd Adam Das was sent packing 6-1, 6-0 by Thailand’s Mai Napatt Nirundorn and qualifier Uma Nayar was no match for ninth seed Daria Snigur of Ukraine, losing 1-6, 0-6.