KUCHING: Malaysia’s top seeded pair of Choo Lyn Yuen and Arcnaah Rajan cruised into the final of the girls’ doubles in the first leg of the ITF 14 and Under Asian Championships (Grade 2) yesterday.
WINNERS AND LOSERS: Wong (second left) of Malaysia and his Singaporean partner Rohan with Fairbanks (right) and Swe at the end of the boys doubles semi-finals. Wong-Rohan won 6-2, 6-2 to reach the final.
They were simply too strong for Singaporeans Joy Chia and Rheeya Doshi, posting an easy 6-1, 6-2 win in the first semi-final.
Lyn Yuen and Arcnaah will now face either another Malaysian pair of Ti Jia Wei and Alyssa Boey or the combined pair of Shaema Al-Olfi (Yemen) and Maliha Al-Awidi (Oman).
In the boys’ doubles, Malaysia’s Colin Wong, who partnered Rohan Kamdar of Singapore, also booked their final ticket when they overcame Alexander Fairbanks of Sri Lanka and Swe Kyaw Htin of Maynmar 6-2, 6-2 in the first semi-final.
At 7pm, the remaining boy and girls semi-finals were still being played.
Meanwhile, the opening day of the second leg of the championships saw mixed fortunes for Malaysia.
While four Malaysian girls made the singles quarter-finals, only Colin Wong advanced to the same stage in the boys’ competition.
Top seed Lyn Yuen who received a bye in the first round, was the first to enter the last eight after steamrolling Htjke Wint Thazin of Myanmar 6-0, 6-1 in the second round.
She next faces sixth seed Dao Minh Trang of Vietnam in the quarter-finals.
INTO LAST EIGHT: Dao Minh Trang of Vietnam hits a return to Gawa Seldon of Bhutan during the girls singles second round match at the second leg of the ITF Asian 14 and Under Championships at SLTA Centre yesterday. Dao won 6-0, 6-3. • Photos by Davidson Kho
The other Malaysian second round winners yesterday were Ti Jia Wei who drubbed Kavindiya De Silva of Sri Lanka 6-1, 6-0, Alyssa Boey who was equally dominating with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Molligoda Thisuri also of Sri Lanka while fourth seed Arcnaah Rajan saw off Oman’s Maliha Al-Awidi 6-4, 6-1.
Also through to the last eight were three Singaporeans Joy Chia, Hannah Chew and Rheeya Doshi. Colin, the second seed, scored an easy first round victory 6-2, 6-0 over Tobygel of Bhutan before beating Nguyen Quy Duy of Vietnam 6-3, 6-4 in the second round.
The Malaysian will next face Rohan Kamdar of Singapore who trounced Samer Thabit of Yemen 6-0, 6-1.
Augustine Chang from Kuching suffered a first round exit, bowing out to Rohan 1-6, 2-6 while joining him on the sidelines were compatriots Tony Chin and Kenneth Tan.
Tan was blanked 0-6, 0-6 by top seed Sharmal Dissanayake of Sri Lanka while Chin lost 2-6, 2-6 to another Sri Lankan Nadaraja Nishangan.
The other boys singles quarter-finalists were Tran Minh Thong of Vietnam, Hasan Hussein of Yemen, Anandone Khamphoumy of Laos, Adas Seif of Jordan, Alexander Fairbanks and Dissanayake of Sri Lanka.
Both the boys and girls singles and doubles matches will be played today.