TENNIS – TOP seed Masa Jankovic battled into the girls’ singles semi-finals yesterday in the Bahrain ITF Juniors Tournament 2024, which is currently being played at the Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTF) hardcourts in Isa Town.
Masa earned her spot after battling back from a set down to defeat eighth seed Maria Ustic of Great Britain 1-6, 6-1, 6-2.
She will next take on third seed Gloria Pop of Romania, who also had a tough challenge in her round-of-eight clash yesterday. Gloria needed to go the maximum to oust Alina Sogomonyan of Armenia 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 and advance.
The other final four contest will be between Alisa Grinkevich and Caroline Hermanns of Denmark. Alis beat Alina Yuneva 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 while Caroline was a 6-3, 6-1 upset winner over second seed Naema Labib of Romania.
In the boys’ singles, number one seed Marat Salbiev marched through to their semi-finals following a 7-6 (1), 6-3 victory over sixth-seed Cagan Efe Tufekci of Turkey. He will next face fifth seed Martija Putic of Serbia, who was leading 6-7 (4), 6-4, 3-1 against Maximilian Heidlmair of Austria when his opponent retired.
Second seed Emirhan Bulut of Turkey will face fourth seed Skander Nsairi of Tunisia in the other semis match. Emirhan battled past Amar Huseinovic of North Macedonia 6-7 (5), 7-6 (8), 6-3 to go through, while Skander won 6-4, 6-2 against seventh seed Issah Ali of Saudi Arabia.
Also yesterday, third seeds Skander and Georgio Bidan of Lebanon beat top seeds Martija and Issah 6-1, 6-4 to make it into the boys’ doubles final.
In the girls’ doubles, Maria and teammate Maria Andreou Portselan of Cyprus punched their tickets to the final after upsetting Romanian top seeds Gloria and Naema 3-6, 6-3, 10-7.
Tournament action continues today with matches in both the boys’ and girls’ singles and doubles draws. All are welcome to attend 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 Billie Jean King Cup Asia/Oceania Group III.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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