Top seeds Dicle Izgi and Emirhan Bulut, both of Türkiye, marched through yesterday to the second round of their respective singles competitions in the Bahrain ITF Juniors Tennis Tournament 2024, currently being played at the Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTF) courts in Isa Town.
The competition is the second of three events being held in the kingdom this month and next. They are part of this year’s International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tennis Tour Juniors calendar.
It is the second straight J30 tournament, and it will be followed by a J60 competition from December 2 to 8. Each event’s name – J30 and J60 – reflects the number of ranking points awarded to the singles winner of that particular competition.
Dicle made it through to round two of the girls’ singles but needed to fight through a three-set battle with fellow-wild card Thaniya Sarai Gogulamanda of India. The pair split the first two sets but Dicle was eventually able to seal the win with a 7-5, 0-6, 6-1 final score.
She now moves on to face Marilyn Workman of the US, another wild card, in the next stage. Marilyn won her opening clash yesterday against Lidia Ratobylskaya 6-4, 6-1.
Also advancing to the girls’ second round yesterday was second seed Fangyu Shang of China, who was the girls’ singles champion in Bahrain’s first ITF juniors tournament which concluded last weekend.
Fangyu won 6-2, 6-1 against Savannah James of Australia, and will next take on Vasilisa Dorina, who triumphed 6-2, 6-4 against Elizaveta Astafjeva of Estonia.
Fourth seed Presha Shanthamoorthi of India beat Elizaveta Privalova 6-2, 6-1 yesterday to power through and will next play Agata Konarska of Poland, who was a 6-1, 6-1 winner over Stella Vujosevic-Richardson of the US; while fifth seed Deniz Cakil of Türkiye beat Siya Prasade of India 7-6 (4), 7-5 and will go up against qualifier Alexandra Kachushkina, who won against Cara Du Toit of Namibia 6-1, 6-2.
Sixth seed Chiu Kwan Nina Wang of Hong Kong defeated Bahraini qualifier Salma Faragallah 6-0, 6-1 to advance and will next play Ekaterina Dotsenko, who was a 6-3, 6-1 victor against Turkish qualifier Ayris Tokac.
Indian wild card Barkha Nair, Swede Victoria Lacki, and Daria Domova were the other girls’ singles players to win yesterday and book their places in the second round.
On the distaff, Emirhan led the boys’ singles players to move forward to their second round following a 7-5, 6-1 win against Undrakh Purevdorj of Mongolia.
Emirhan will now face off with Matei Sucu of Romania, who made it through after opponent Kabir Chothani retired in the third set with the score tied at 1-1. Matei won the first set 6-4 and then Kabir took the second 7-6 (6).
Third seed Shixun Zhu of China was another to advance. He was leading 6-1, 3-1 when first round opponent Victor Velasco Caballer retired.
Others to claim wins yesterday and secure their places in the second stage were Yagiz Yildiz and Erkut Aydin of Türkiye, Maxim Shepilov, Ivan Sharabaika, and Daniil Tkachenko.
Action in the tournament continues today at the BTF from 9am. All are welcome to attend.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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