Carnello, Shivani stunned as seeds continue to fall

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Shivani Amineni of India lost in the girls singles quarterfinals yesterday. – Photo by Chai Chang Yu

KUCHING: More seeded players tumbled in the quarterfinals of the 32nd Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (II) ITF Junior Circuit (Grade 3) tennis championship at SLTA Tennis Centre yesterday.

They include boys singles second seed Lancelot Carnello of Australia, sixth seed Rikard Raad of Sweden, girls second seed Shivani Amineni of India and boys doubles seventh seeds Chiu Ming-Chieh (Chinese Taipei)-Zhou Xian-Yao (China).

Carnello was the biggest seeded casualty as he went down 6-4, 6-7(1), 3-6 to eighth seed Carl Emil Overbeck from Denmark. His opponent in today’s semi-final is fifth seed Cooper White of Australia who beat Chang Tzu Yi 6-3, 6-0.

Tournament 13th seed Hikaru Takeda continued his fine run by defeating Rikard in straight sets of 6-3, 6-1 and will play top seed from Ukraine Eric Vanshelboim after the latter saw off the challenge from Erik Eliasson of Sweden 6-1, 7-6(1).

In yesterday’s girls singles quarterfinals between Shivani and 11th seed Sheena Jade Masuda Karrasch of Hong Kong, Sheena took the first set 6-0 but Shivani fought back to win the set 6-3 and lost 4-6 in the decider. Sheena will play against Janice Tjen after the Indonesian fifth seed beat Sim Chae Hyun of South Korea 6-2, 6-2.

Other semi-finalists are top seed Priska Madelyn Nugroho of Indonesia and Zhao Cong Ying of China who disposed of their respective opponents Makoto Ohara of Japan and Fang Wei Ning of Chinese Taipei 6-1, 6-1 and 6-2, 6-0.

In the boys doubles, Chinese Taipei pair Chang Tzu Li and Cheng Wei Chen were the surprise package after registering an upset 5-7, 6-2 (10-6) win over the combined pair of Chiu Ming-Chieh (Chinese Taipei) and Zhou Xian Yao (China). Their last four opponents are third seeds Carl Emil Overbeck-Raad Rikard who ousted sixth seeds Guntinun-Sootinu Opart and Takeshi Koey Jian Keong 6-3, 7-5.

Meanwhile, top seeds Lancelot Carnello-Eric Vanshelboim survived a first set scare 3-6 against Hikaru Takeda-Yusuke Tamaki before winning the second set 6-1 and 10-8 in the super tie-break to book a showdown with fourth seeds Casey Hoole-Cooper White, who overpowered fifth seeds Witold Konopko-Jose Antonio Tria 6-4, 6-1.