Malaysian singles shown the door at SLTA Centre
KUCHING: None of the Malaysian challenger sin the singles qualifying events of the ITF World Tennis Tour J1 Sarawak33rd Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (1) advanced at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) Tennis Centre yesterday.
In the girls singles qualifying, Lim Sze Xuan was no match for top seed Che Yujiao of China who is ranked ITF No. 350, bowing out 2- 6, 3- 6.
The other Malaysian Chloe Chong Zhi Jing, the 10th seed, was sent packing 6- 2, 6-1 by Japan’s sixth seed Mio Kazaki.
Elys Saguil-Ventura was the only seeded casualty as the second seed from New Zealand fell 7- 5, 36, 5-7 to eighth seed Sena Takebe of Japan.
Those who booked their places in the main draw that will be played from Tuesday are third seed Shiori Ito of Japan and compatriot Kyoka Kubo, and China’s Hu Xinyue.
There was no upsets in the boys singles qualifying as the top 12 seeds all made it to the finals, with top seed Kamil Kozlowski of Australia leading the way when he blanked Singapore’s Matthew Johnson 6- 0, 6- 0.
Kozlowski’s finals opponent is 10th seed Timothy Phung of the USA.
Zheng Baoluo of China, the second seed, emerged a 6-1, 6- 2 winner over Long Kacper Vu of Vietnam while third seed Karl Kazuma Lee of the US whitewashed Nikhil Mukherjee of India 6- 0, 6- 0.
The other finalists in action today are Credit Chaiyarin, Nauvaldo Jati Agatra, Ethan Lye Kai Xin, Reiya Komagata, Yusuke Tamaki, Kyle Tan Lok Yin, Odeda Mohammad Arazza and Yuan Zihao.
However, there is still some Malaysian interest in this prestigious tournament thanks to wildcards given by the organiser to eight players including two girls.
They are Mohd Aiman Hamdan, Takeshi Koey Jian Keong, Darrshan Suresh, Naufal Siddiq Kamaruzzaman, Hayden Khoo Menon and sisters Elysia Wan and Elsa Wan.