TENNIS – Emre Atlamis of Türkiye upset top seed Issah Ali of Saudi Arabia in a tough three-setter yesterday to advance to the boys’ singles second round in the J30 Manama International Tennis Federation (ITF) championship, which got underway at the Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTF) courts in Isa Town.
The tournament is a part of the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors 2025 calendar.
After Issah dominated the first set, Emre stepped it up in the second and rode his momentum into the third to secure a 0-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory.
He moved on to the next phase where he will take on unseeded Indian Kaushik Arunkumar, who triumphed 6-1, 6-1 over Bahraini wild card Ahmed Al Sayed yesterday.
Others to make it through in the boys’ singles were second seed Stanislav Kosev of Bulgaria, fourth seed Petr Lifanov of Russia, eighth seed Georgio Bidan of Lebanon, Talal Shatara of Jordan, Karem Tufekci of Türkiye, Veer Madam of India, Sacha Fontanges of France, and Italian wild card Tommaso Rosso.
In the girls’ singles, third seed Saiyette Varadkar of India was among those who punched their tickets to round two. Saiyette needed to battle hard against Elizaveta Zelenova of Russia to win 7-6 (7), 6-7 (4), 6-0 in a tight match.
Also advancing were seventh seed Milana Kolesova, Elena Utkina, Alexandra Talina of Russia, and Aleksandra Bortnichek, all of Russia, and Japan’s Haru Ishida.
In yesterday’s boys’ doubles action, taking wins and advancing to the quarter-finals were the second-seeded pairing of Petr and Mustafa Ege Topbas of Türkiye, third-seeded Jordanians Talal and Amir Jaber, fourth seeds Kaushik and Muaz Malik of the US, Kousuke Ko of Chinese-Taipei and Ivan Matveev of Russia, and the duo of Veer and Mattia Salvatore Tartaglia of Italy.
Amongst the girls, through to their doubles quarter-finals were Elizaveta and Meryem Muhammedova of Turkmenistan, the Russian tandem of Daniela Esina and Alisa Grushkevich, and the duo of Zeynep Eylul Bagdatli of Türkiye and Ruo Qing Yang of China.
Matches in both the singles and doubles are scheduled to continue today from 10am. All are welcome to attend. Entrance to the BTF is free of charge.
The J30 Manama ITF tournament is the second competition of its kind in as many weeks being hosted by the kingdom. The other was the J30 Isa Town ITF championship.
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