Phantala, Marinkov top-ranked casualties at Premier S’wak Cup
The girls singles second seed Margot Phantala of France and boys singles third seed Pavle Marinkov of Australia became the top casualties in the third round (last 16) of the 40th Premier Sarawak Cup (J1) ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors J300 Kuching at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) Tennis Centre yesterday.
Margot was upstaged by 13th seed Kanon Sawashiro of Japan 6-3, 6-1 and the ITF No. 122 will take on unseeded Xi Ni of China who beat Seri Nayuki of Japan 7-5, 6-3.
Tournament’s top seed Kristina Penickova of the US and ITF No. 6 however faced little problem in disposing 15th seed Shiho Tsujioka from Japan 6-3, 6-1 to set up a quarterfinal clash with 12th seed Wei Zhang-Qian of China.
Joining them in the last eight are Japanese challenger Reina Goto, Duru Soke and Ada Kumru of Turkey and Komonwan Yodpetch of Thailand.
The boys singles saw Pavle exiting the third round after he retired in the second set.
He was trailing fellow Australian Jake Dembo 4-6, 1-1.
Jake next faces sixth seed Ivan Iutkin who ousted Kriish Tyagi of India 6-3, 6-4.
The second seed from South Korea Kim Jangjun advanced to the quarterfinals after registering a 6-2, 6-1 win over Harry Pugh of New Zealand.
He is joined by top seed Hayden Jones of Australia after the ITF No. 9 eased past Jack Cheng of Hong Kong 6-2, 6-1.
Meanwhile, in the boys doubles, eighth seeds Matteo Morazzi and Stephane Pierre-Jo Kamendje became the first pair to reach the semifinals after they sprung an upset 6-3, 6-4 win over the second seeds Hwang Donghyun and Yuta Tomida.