TENNIS – FANGYU Shang of China and Dev Kanbargimath of Romania were yesterday crowned champions of the Bahrain ITF Juniors Tennis Tournament 2024, which came to a close at the Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTF) courts in Isa Town.
Fangyu claimed the girls’ singles title – her second straight in an International Tennis Federation (ITF) event in the kingdom in as many weeks – while Dev secured the boys’ singles crown.
Second-seeded Fangyu won her all-Chinese clash against eighth seed Xiang Liu in their final. Fangyu won the first set 6-1 and was leading 4-1 in the second when Xiang retired.
Fangyu was also the victor in last week’s Bahrain ITF competition at the BTF, where she also beat Xiang.
On the distaff, second seed Dev battled hard to upset top seed Emirhan Bulut of Turkey 6-4, 6-4. His win earned him a sensational double in this tournament, having also claimed the boys’ doubles title with teammate Shixun Zhu of China on Friday.
The girls’ doubles winners were Ekaterina Dotsenko and Vasilisa Dorina
The championship was held as part of the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors calendar for 2024. It was the second straight J30 event. Another ITF competition is to follow, 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.
The ITF junior competitions are part of a series of major tennis tournaments set to be held in Bahrain over the next several weeks.
Also to be held are the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group V and the Billie Jean King Cup Asia/Oceania Group III.
Davis Cup action will be held from Wednesday to Saturday. Fifteen nations will be competing, and they will be hoping to finish as the top two and gain promotion to Asia/Oceania Group IV next year.
The participating countries include Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Guam, Laos, Macau, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Northern Mariana Islands, the Philippines, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Yemen, and hosts Bahrain.
Billie Jean King Cup play will be held from November 25 to 30. More details of the event will be announced soon, along with the Arab championship.