Christian bows out of Aussie Open juniors

CHRISTIAN Didier Chin and Siddhant Banthia’s campaign in the Australia Open juniors came to an end in the second round yesterday.

The Malaysian and his partner from India put up a strong fight but were eventually outplayed 64, 6-4 by second seeds Sebastian Korda (USA) and Nicholas Mejia (Colombia) in the men’s junior doubles at Melbourne Park.

Sabahan Christian said they had their moments against the highly favoured duo but could not make it count.

Korda is the son of former World No 2 and Australian Open champion Petr Korda.

“We played the second seeds today. They are both ranked in the top 10 ( juniors) in the world,” said Christian yesterday.

“We almost won, it was just 4-6, 4-6, just one break of serve. We had our chances in the first set.

“We held serve and had three break points which we could not take as they were serving really well.”

Christian said his outing Down Under was another positive notch in his journey to becoming a touring professional. The Australian Open is his first junior Grand Slam.

“Overall, I would say it has been a good tournament. I made the second round in both the singles and doubles.”

Christian defeated top Aussie junior Thomas Bosancic in the opening round of the singles before going down to Poland’s big serving Wojciech Marek in the second round. Fadhli Ishak