TENNIS – Emre Atlamis of Türkiye took down top seed Issah Ali of Saudi Arabia yesterday in a boys’ singles first-round upset in the J30 Isa Town International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament, currently being played at the Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTF) courts in Isa Town.
The competition is a part of the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors 2025 calendar.
Emre battled hard to overcome his heavily favoured opponent in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 (3) to advance to the next stage.
There, he will face off with Ahmed Ebrahim of Egypt, who defeated Tudor Alexandru Zecheru of Romania 6-2, 6-1 in another match in the opening phase yesterday.
Also making it through in the boys’ singles was second seed Amir Jaber of Jordan, who beat Alex Ramis Moyano of Spain 7-5, 6-4.
Fourth seed Mustafa Ege Topbas of Turkey defeated Ivan Sharabaika of Russia 6-1, 6-3 to make it through; sixth seed Ivan Makarov of Russia outplayed Ahmed Al Sayed of Bahrain 6-0, 6-0; and eighth seed Jan Werblinski of Poland defeated Tarek El Chaaby of Lebanon 6-4, 6-3.
Others advancing yesterday to round two were Tommaso Rosso of Italy, Sergi Ramis Coll of Spain, Karem Tufekci of Turkey.
Meanwhile, in the girls’ singles, number one seed Chenming Zhang of China cruised to the second round with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Giulia Fiorenza of Italy.
Chenming will next take on Victoria Lacki of Sweden, who was a 6-3, 6-1 winner yesterday against Canadian wild card Havah Kaur Kaler.
Third seed Saiyette Varadkar of India joined Chenming in round two following a 6-1, 6-2 triumph against June Grenness Tronhus of Norway; while seventh seed Sara Dessouky of Egypt beat Maja Maluszynska of Poland 6-1, 6-1 to move forward.
Others to win yesterday and punch their tickets to the second round were Raania Thakur of India, Maria Andreou Portselan of Cyprus, and Agata Konarska of Poland.
The doubles competitions also got underway yesterday at the BTF.
Amongst the boys taking wins were top seeds Mustafa and Russian partner Petr Lifanov; the third-seeded pairing of Georgio Bidan of Lebanon and Ivan Makarov of Russia; Spaniard Oscar Casas Mas and Russian Timur Gordeev; and Kousuke Ko of Chinese-Taipei with partner Seungjun Min of South Korea.
From the girls, emerging triumphant were the number one pairing of Sara and Saiyette; third-seeded Russians Katsiaryna Dubik and Daria Podlipskaya; fourth seeds Ema Chladova of the Czech Republic and Camilla Mizzi of Italy; and Zeynep Eylul Bagdatli of Turkey and partner VD Rashmi Omaya Wijewardana of Sri Lanka.
Matches are scheduled to continue today from 10am until the afternoon with action in both singles and doubles for both boys and girls. All are welcome to attend and watch the action. Entrance to the BTF is free of charge.
This week’s J30 Isa Town tournament continues until Saturday. It will be followed by another J30 ITF competition from Monday next week to February 15.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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