Rain pounds Asian U-14s, Liew confident of scheduled finish
KUCHING: For two days in a row, play at the ITF 14 and Under Asian Championships (Grade 2) tennis was stopped by heavy rain.
BEEN THERE BEFORE: Liew looks on as volunteers clear water off the courts during an international tournament at SLTA Centre, in this Nov 7, 2009 file photo.
There was no chance of even staging a single game as intermittent rain for the whole day continued to pound the courts at Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) Centre, Jalan Crookshank here yesterday.
The first leg of the championships was into its semi-final stage and a few hours of sun was just what the organisers and players were hoping for yesterday so that they could proceed with the competition.
Event organising chairman Patrick Liew said although rain had disrupted the playing schedule, the two legs of the championships could still be completed on time.
“We have experienced this type of situation before just like last year in January when we hosted the first edition of the ITF 14 and Under Asian Championships, rain fell continuously for three days and there was even flooding in Kuching,” he recalled.
Liew, who is also SLTA president, said in between the two legs was a rest day which falls on Jan 15 (today) and in the event that the weather improved, the semi-finals would be played.
“We only need four to five hours of good weather to complete the first leg and we may also stage the games at night as we have eight well-lit courts at the centre,” he said.
There are a total of 12 courts at the centre, with one designated for training and practice.
Liew pointed out that this type of situation was quite common in tennis tournaments and the organisers had contingency plans to overcome the problem. “For the second leg of the championships that runs from Saturday (tomorrow) to Jan 19, we can resort to using the short sets system whereby the player who reaches four games first wins the set,” said Liew, adding that this system was permitted by International Tennis Federation (ITF).
He said it was up to ITF representative Suresh Menon to make the final decision on the matter.
“And in the event that the finals are hampered by rain, we can declare both finalists as joint winners,” Liew added.
Meanwhile, top seed Arcnaah Rajan of Malaysia will play third seed Joy Chia of Singapore in one of the girls singles semi-finals, with second seed Alyssa Boey facing fourth seed Choo Lyn Yuen in the other all-Malaysian semi-final.
The sole Malaysian challenger in the boys singles Colin Wong, seeded second, will take on seventh seed Alexander Fairbanks of Sri Lanka in one of the semi-finals while the latter’s compatriot and top seed Sharmal Dissanayake of Sri Lanka will face third seed Hussein Hasan of Yemen in the other.
Colin and Rohan Kamdar of Singapore will play Fairbanks, partnering Swe Kyaw Htin of Myanmar, for a place in the boys doubles final while the Sri Lanka pair of Dissanayake and Nadaraja Nishangan will face Hasan and his Jordanian partner Seif Adas in the other semi-final.
In the girls doubles semi-finals, the first match will be between Singaporeans Rheeya Doshi-Joy and Malaysians Arcnaah-Lyn Yuen.
The second semi-final is between another Malaysian pair, Ti Jia Wei and Alyssa, and Maliha Al-Awidi of Oman and Shaema Al-Olfi of Jordan.
There will be play-offs for the other positions to decide the seedings for the second leg of the championships, where the winners will play in a Group One championship to be held in Shenzhen, China next month.
A total of 59 players – 35 boys and 24 girls – from 11 teams will be taking part in the singles and doubles competitions in two four-day tournaments.
Apart from Malaysia, the other teams are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and the ITF Team, which is made up of six players from Jordan, Oman and Yemen.
The first leg of the championships is from Jan 11-14 while the second leg is played from Jan 16-19.