TOP PAIRS: Winners of the boys’ and girls’ doubles posing with their trophies after the prize presentation. From left to right are Dabin Kim, Tamachan Momkoonthod, Benjamin Hannestad and Tim Van Rijthoven. — Photos by Davidson Kho
KUCHING: Tim Van Rijthoven of Netherlands claimed the biggest scalp in the 22nd Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup ITF Junior Tennis Championship when he ousted top seed Yang Shao-Chi of Taipei in the boy’s singles semi-finals yesterday.
The ITF No. 359 and tournament 12th seed proved too good for the ITF No. 154 player, winning in straight sets 6-3, 6-2.
The Dutch challenger will be out to complete a double victory this week in Kuching when he takes on sixth seed Lo Chien Hsun, ITF No. 246 player from Taipei, who advanced to the final by defeating ninth seed Bjorn Thomson of Ireland 6-1, 6-4 in the other semi-final.
Yesterday, Rijthoven and his Danish partner Benjamin Hannestad lost little sweat in lifting the boy’s doubles crown.
They were leading Lam Siu Chuen of Hong Kong and Lo Chien Hsun of Taipei 3-0 in the first set when the latter retired.
It was almost the same script in the girl’s final when top seeded pair Dabin Kim of South Korea and Tamachan Momkoonthod of Thailand enjoyed a walkover as the second seeds Miki Kobayashi of Japan and Shao Yijia (China) did not show up for the match.
Miki had in fact left Kuching on Friday afternoon, catching a flight to compete elsewhere.
Two matches will be played today starting at 9am.
They are the boy’s singles final between Rijthoven and Lo, and the girl’s final between Dabin Kim and Shao Yijia of China.
Kim, ITF No. 112 player and tournament top seed, eased to a 6-2, 6-2 win over ninth seed Arina Folts of Uzbekistan while second seed Shao destroyed sixth seed from India, Druthi Tatachar Venugopal 6-4, 6-0 in the semi-finals.