Sabrina stuns top seed Simone

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 9

Unseeded Sabrina Kalandarov of Israel registered a comeback win over Italy’s second seed A Simone to qualify for the girls’ U-18 quarterfinals in the ongoing ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors (Grade-III) at the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association Complex, Sector 10, here today.

After rain played spoilsport for three days, the main draw matches were conducted today. Sabrina lost the first set 0-4 and was trailing 0-2 in the second. But she improved at the right time and went on to win the second set 4-2. In the decider, she completely dominated her opponent to pull off a 4-1 victory.

In another major upset, Belgium’s Jullettee Bovy ousted top seed Yu Yun Li of Taiwan 4-1 4-2. Britain’s Jasmine Conway also moved further by defeating Indian contender Shuitha Maruri 4-3(1) 4-1, whereas fifth seed A Waligora of Belgium overpowered Dana Issabayeva of Kazakhstan 4-2 4-0.

Another Israeli player, sixth seed M Fruchtman Dagan, recorded a comeback win over Teja Tiruelveli of the USA. Fruchtman lost the first set 1-4, but came back strongly in the next two sets 4-1 4-1. Russia’s Y Bartashevich defeated Xinyue Hu of China 4-3(3) 4-2, whereas eighth seed Jlaqi Huang defeated Indian player L Vishwanath 4-1 4-0. Reshma Maruri became the only Indian player to qualify for the girls’ quarterfinal by defeating another Indian challenger Sarah Dev 4-1 4-0.

Top seed Malkowski also confirms last-eight berth

Top seed J Malkowski of Switzerland qualified for the boys’ U-18 quarterfinals by registering a 4-3(4) 4-0 win over Indian player Nishant Dabas. Second seed Han Chih Lin of Taiwan sailed into the next round by defeating Indian challenger Uddayvir Singh 4-0 4-0, whereas third seed Haoyuan Huang of China defeated India’s Denim Yadav 4-1 4-2. Fourth seed R Collignon of Belgium also recorded a one-sided 4-1 4-3(3) win over Samer Al Tori of Israel. Fifth seed Leo Raquin of France outplayed Indian player Arnav Pathange 4-3(1) 4-2.

Sixth seed Bohua Dong of China defeated Indian contender Sushant Dabas 4-1 4-3(1), whereas seventh seed Orel Kimhi of Israel faced a tough challenge from Chirag Duhan before logging a 3-4(4) 4-3(1) 4-2 victory. Begum’s Martin Katz recorded a 4-3(4) 4-3(2) win over Japan’s Yamato Sueoka to confirm his quarterfinals berth. The singles quarterfinals and doubles semifinals will be played on Friday.