Chin and Watanabe stun top seeds in boys’ doubles

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Christian Didier Chin (front) and Seita Watanabe are in the boys doubles semi-finals after they sent the top seeds packing in the quarterfinals.

KUCHING: Malaysia’s Christian Didier Chin and his partner from Japan Seita Watanabe sprung a big surprise in the quarterfinals of the boys doubles at the rain-disrupted 31st Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (I) ITF Junior Tennis Championship (Grade 1) at SLTA Tennis Centre yesterday.

The tournament sixth seeds sent the top seeded pair from the Czech Republic Jonas Forejtek and Dalibor Svrcina packing 6-1, 1-6 (10-6) to move into today’s semi-finals where they will play unseeded pair Arthur Craig Pantino (Philippines) and Beibit Zhukayez (Kazakhstan) who upset the fifth seeds Han Seon Yong (South Korea) and Mo Ye Cong (China) 7-6 (4), 6-3 in another match.

The other boys doubles semi-final between Baptiste Anselmo (France)-Brian Bencic (Switzerland) and Erik Grevelius (Sweden)-Hikaru Shiraishi (Japan) was halted by the heavy downpour at 2.30pm while the latter were leading the game 3-2.

In the girls doubles, all the top three seeded pairs successfully entered the last four, with top seeds Lulu Sun-Sun Qinwen (China) coming back from one set down 3-6 to beat fifth seeds Thasaporn Naklo (Thailand) and Cody Wong Hong Yi (Hong Kong) 6-3 (11-9).

Second seeds Park Sohyun (South Korea) and Mananchaya Sawangkaew (Thailand) moved past eighth seeds Karolina Berankova (Czech Republic) and Melis Yasar (Sweden) 6-2, 7-6 (4) to meet third seeds Anri Nagata and Naho Sato (Japan) in the other semi-final after the Japanese girls saw off the challenge from the combined pair of Adrienn Nagy (Hungary) and Yuki Naito (Japan) in straight sets 6-1, 6-3.

Three Japanese girls advanced into the singles semi-finals, thus ensuring that one of them will be in the final.

Top seed Naho Sato ousted South Korean Park Sohyun 6-4, 6-3 to meet her compatriot Anri Nagata while fifth seed Yuki Naito upstaged second seed Lulu Sun of Switzerland 6-2, 6-4 for the match up against fourth seed from China Zheng Qinwen who beat Daria Snigur of Ukraine 7-5, 6-1.

Meanwhile, 16th seed Jack Drapper of Great Britain kept his winning momentum going when he out played sixth seed Jonas Forejtek of Czech Republic 6-0, 6-2 in the boys singles.

His opponent in the semi-finals is ninth seed Jiri Lehecka from the Czech Republic who emerged a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Japan’s Shunsuke Mitsui.

In today’s other semi-final, Han Seon Yong of South Korea will take on third seed Dalibor Svrcina of Czech Republic after they beat Rinky Hijikata of Japan 7-5, 7-5 and Dane Sweeny of Australia 7-5(4), 2-6, 6-3 respectively.