Christian books spot in CM Cup semi-finals
KUCHING: Sole Malaysian survivor in the boys singles Christian Didier Chin and second seed Seita Watanabe of Japan booked their places in the semifinals of the 30th Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup ( II) ITF Junior Circuit (Grade 3) at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association Tennis Centre yesterday.
Tournament’ s top seed Christian, who is ITF No 81, finished off Nikit Reddy of US 62, 6-1 in the third round and went on to beat sixth seed Yu Hua- Chen of Taiwan in three sets 7- 5, 4- 6, 6- 3 in the quarterfinals.
The ever improving player from Sabah will next play sixth seed Rinky Hijikata in today’s semi- finals after the Australian saw off the challenge from 15th seed Lukas Hellum Lilleengen of Norway 6-1, 6-2.
Whereas Seita brushed ninth seed from China Yu Bingyu aside with straight sets of 6-1, 6-1 to take on third seed from India Digvijay Pratap Singh after the latter outlasted fifth seed Campbell Salmon from Australia 6-2, 6-7(4) 6-2 in the other quarterfinal.
The girls singles competition registered more upsets yesterday with second seed Park Sohyun of South Korea getting dumped 6- 4, 6- 4 by fifth seed Wang Jiaqi of China, and third seed Sakura Hosogi suffered a 6- 3, 6- 0 defeat to 12th seed Ivana Popovic of Australia.
Wang and Ivana will play for the right to be in the final while the top seed from China Zheng Qinwen sailed into the last four after recording a 6-2, 6-1 win over her opponent from Carol Lee Youngsuh of Northern Mirana Island. Zheng is to play fourth seed Thai lass Mananchaya Sawangkaew who ousted seed seed Olivia Gadecki from Australia 6-1, 6- 3.
In the boys doubles, the final will be fought between the Taiwanese brothers Yu Chieh Cheng-Yu HuaChen, the fourth seeds, and the second seeded Indian pair of Megh Bhargav Patel and Digvijay Pratap Singh. Indonesia’s Priska Madelyn Nugroho and Janice Tjen shall face the combination of Park Sohyun ( South Korea) and Mananchaya Sawangkaew ( Thailand) for the girls doubles crown.