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TENNIS – TALENTED youngsters Veronika Navratilova of the Czech Republic and Milana Kolesova of Russia both stayed in the running yesterday to claim a fantastic title double in the J30 Manama International Tennis Federation (ITF) championship, currently being held at the Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTF) courts in Isa Town.
The tournament is part of the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors 2025 calendar.
Both Veronika and Milana barged into the final of the girls’ singles competition and also teamed up to secure a berth in the final of the girls’ doubles.
In the singles, sixth-seeded Veronika won against top seed Leanne Abouhamad of Australia. Veronika won the first set 6-1 and was leading 2-0 in the second when Leanne retired.
Seventh-seeded Milana, meanwhile, beat fellow-Russian Alisa Grushkevich in their semi-final 6-3, 6-2 to set up the exciting title clash.
In their doubles semi-final yesterday, Veronika and Milana needed to battle back from a set down to beat Alisa and playing partner Daniela Esina, also of Russia, 5-7, 6-2, 10-6. They now hope to live up to their billing as girls’ doubles top seeds when they take on the third-seeded Russian tandem of Katsiaryna Dubik and Daria Podlipskaya, who were 6-4, 7-6 (4) winners against Yasemin Eiselmeier and Ecrin Lal Yavuz, both from Turkiye.
On the distaff, Emre Atlamis of Turkiye and Spanish qualifier Sergi Ramis Coll will square off for the boys’ singles title.
Emre will be looking to cap off his remarkable run in the tournament, during which he took down top seed Issah Ali of Saudi Arabia, Kaushik Arunkumar of India, eighth seed Georgio Bidan of Lebanon, and yesterday seventh seed Artem Svetlov of Russia 6-3, 6-4 to contend for the crown.
Sergi, on the other hand, upset fifth seed Muaz Malik of the US 6-2, 6-2 in their match yesterday.
In the boys’ doubles, the final will be contested between the third-seeded Jordanian pairing of Amir Jaber and Talal Shatara and fourth seeds Muaz and Kaushik.
Amir and Talal overcame a tough challenge from Bahrain’s Ahmed Al Sayed and Bulgarian partner Stanislav Kosev 6-7 (6), 6-2, 10-7 while Muaz and Kaushik got the better of second seeds Petr Lifanov of Russia and Mustafa Ege Topbas of Turkiye 6-2, 6-7 (5), 10-3.
Today is the concluding day of the championship, with the three finals scheduled to start from 9.30am, including the girls’ singles and the two boys’ categories. The girls’ doubles title clash will follow the boys’ doubles decider at the BTF’s centre court.
All are welcome to attend. Entrance to the BTF is free.
The J30 Manama ITF event is the second competition of its kind hosted by the kingdom in as many weeks being hosted by the kingdom. The other was the J30 Isa Town ITF championship.
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