TENNIS – Ema Chladova of the Czech Republic upset top seed Chenming Zhang of China in a tough three sets yesterday to advance to the girls’ singles final of 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.
Sixth-seeded Ema battled back from a set down to claim a hard-earned 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 victory and secure a spot in the title match.
Ema will now square off with fourth seed Milana Kolesova of Russia in the decider. Milana booked her spot following a 7-5, 6-4 win against seventh seed Sara Dessouky of Egypt in their semi-final yesterday.
Ema’s showdown with Milana is one of four finals scheduled for today at the BTF.
The boys’ singles title-decider is another, and it will be contested between Oscar Casas Mas of Spain and Nikita Berdin of Russia.
Oscar needed to go the maximum in a tightly contested affair against Tommaso Rosso of Italy, in which the last two sets needed to go into a tie-break. Oscar finally pulled off the win with a 7-5, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5) score line.
Nikita, on the other hand, took down fifth-seeded compatriot Artem Svetlov 6-3, 6-2 to march through to their final.
Meanwhile, Ema will have a chance to secure a sensational double in the tournament, having also qualified for the girls’ doubles championship match.
Competing alongside partner Camilla Mizzi of Italy, the fourth-seeded pairing beat the Russian duo of Daniela Esina and Alisa Grushkevich 6-4, 6-3 to punch their tickets to the last stage.
There, they will battle with another Russian tandem in third seeds Katsiaryna Dubik and Daria Podlipskaya, who were 6-3, 6-0 winners against number one seeds Sara and Saiyette Varadkar of India.
In the boys’ doubles, top seeds Petr Lifanov of Russia and Mustafa Ege Topbas of Turkiye defeated Kousuke Ko of Chinese Taipei and Seungjun Min of South Korea 6-1, 6-1 to advance to their final.
They will face off with fourth seeds Sacha Fontanges of France and Ahmed Ibrahim of Egypt, who beat Tommaso and Canadian Aidan Tait 5-7, 7-6 (5), 11-9 in their semi-final yesterday.
Today’s concluding day of matches are scheduled to begin at 10am. All are welcome to the BTF. Entrance is free of charge.
This J30 Isa Town tournament will be followed by another J30 ITF competition from Monday to Saturday next week.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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