Clay court holds back team Bahrain on debut

Manama: Bahrain’s historic debut in the International Tennis Federation Cup for Girls 16 years and under didn’t go to plan yesterday as the team went down 0-3 to Singapore in its opening Asia/Oceania Group 1 match yesterday on an unfamiliar clay court surface in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.

In the opening singles rubber, Singapore’s Kei Ashley beat Nazly Darwish 6-0, 6-0 and Charmanie Seah followed suit with the same result (6-0, 6-0) in the second rubber against Maran Mohammed.

The final match in the doubles saw Kei and Charmanie Seah team-up to win 6-0, 6-0 against Nazly and Maran.

Today Bahrain play its second match against Turkmenistan as the round-robin competition continues.

Bahrain are one of 12 teams competing in four groups of three playing round-robin and then a knockout to decide the placings with matches concluding on Thursday.

Other groups comprise, Iraq, Nepal, Kyrgystan, a third group is Vietnam, Philippines and Lebanon and the fourth is Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Oman.

Bahrain’s squad also includes Najma Ramzi and are accompanied by Sana Hussain Al Ramadan, a Physical Education teacher at the Ministry of Education and registered referee and coach and former Bahrain Davis Cup player Essam Abdul A’al.