TENNIS – ESILA Toklu from Turkey battled into the girls’ singles second round yesterday in the Bahrain ITF Juniors Tournament 2024, which got underway at the Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTF) hardcourts in Isa Town.
Esila, one of four qualifiers to make it into their respective main draw, overcame a tough challenge from Romania’s Maria Alexandra Mateas 6-3, 1-6, 6-0 to march through to the next stage.
There, she will take on fourth seed Alisa Grinkevich, who also won yesterday with a walkover against Aya Lababidi of France.
Also advancing was Ava Khalil from the US. She battled past Simona Cucu, also from Romania, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7) to book her spot in round two, where she will next face eighth-seeded wild card Maria Ustic of Great Britain. Maria defeated Sude Ulueren of Turkey 6-2, 7-6 (4) to march through.
Fifth seed Dicle Izgi, also of Turkey, was a 7-6 (5), 6-3 winner against British qualifier Maria Nicol, while Leah Baroudi of Syria won 6-2, 6-2 against Anicia Hammoud of Finland to go forward.
Others to make it into the girls’ singles second round were wild card Victoria Lacki of Sweden, Maria Andreou Portselan of Cyprus, Alina Yuneva, and Sim Sipahioglu and Yasemin Pehlivan, both from Turkey.
Bahrain is represented amongst the girls by Salma Faragallah, who made it into the main draw as a lucky loser from qualification. She will be going up against second-seeded Romanian Naema Labib in the first round.
Meanwhile, in the boys’ singles main round, Bahrain’s Faris Al Toobli went down fighting to Canadian Edward Kruppe in three sets. Faris, entered as a wild card, took the early lead and came close to securing the win in the second set, but couldn’t finish things off. Edward took advantage and sealed the tie with a 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 score line.
Boys’ second seed Emirhan Bulut of Turkey joined Edward in the second stage following a 6-2, 6-3 win against Matei Sucu of Romania. He will next take on Aleksandar Daskalovic of Great Britain, who won 6-1, 6-0 yesterday against Daniil Karpukhin.
Eighth seed Amar Huseinovic of North Macedonia also qualified with a 6-3, 6-4 win against Ivan Ponomarev of Kazakhstan. He will next play Kerem Tufekci of Turkey, who won 6-3, 6-2 against Mattia Salvatore Tartaglia of Italy.
Seventh seed Issah Ali of Saudi Arabia was another to advance yesterday after battling back from a set down to defeat Daniil Tkachenko 6-7 (5), 7-5, 7-5.
Bahrain’s other boys’ singles entrant, wild card Ahmed Al Sayed, will be in action today in his first round clash against Iason Lykos of Greece.
All are welcome to attend the tournament and watch the action. Entrance to the BTF is free of charge.
The ongoing ITF competition is a J60 event – meaning that the singles winners take away 60 ranking points – and it is the third on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tennis Tour Juniors Calendar to be held in the kingdom.
Two J30 championships also took place at the BTF last month, along with the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group V and the just-concluded Billie Jean King Cup Asia/Oceania Group III, making for an exciting few weeks for the local tennis community.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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