Kalinskaya shocks Jia-Jing Lu

Manama : Top seed Jia-Jing Lu of China ranked 205 was shocked yesterday by seventh seeded Anna Kalinskaya of Russia losing 7-6(5), 2-6, 7-5 in the quarter finals of the women’s singles of the ITF Futures Tennis Tournament at the Bahrain Tennis Club in Juffair.

The day’s schedule was disrupted by periodic showers in the afternoon forcing a three-hour delay and making a decision late last night to reschedule the order of play today starting from 11am with the men’s/women’s doubles semi-finals being postponed and being played back-to-back with the finals later in the afternoon.

Defending champion and second seed Fatma Al Nabhani of Oman ranked 413 was also knocked out 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-4 by sixth seed Tereza Mikailikova of Slovakia and fifth seeded Katharina Lehnert of the Philippines was a comfortable 6-1, 6-1 winner against fourth seeded Kazakhstan’s Kamila Kerimbayeva ranked 367.

Prerna Bhambri won her match 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 6-4 in the women’s quarter finals against Germany’s Vivian Hiesen.

Meanwhile, in the men’s singles quarter finals, the top seed from the Netherlands Scott Griekspoor ranked 331 again had to fight hard to defeat eighth seed Indian Kunal Anand 6-3 4-6 6-2, while last year’s runner-up and sixth seed Tobias Simon from Germany beat Ireland’s second seeded Sam Barry ranked 369 in straight sets 6-1, 6-4.

Completing the semi-final line-up were fifth seeded Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor who was a 7-5, 6-0 winner over third seeded Germany Yannick Maden ranked 547 and Cameron Silverman of the US received a walkover win as fourth seed Lennert Van Der Linden conceded due to illness.

Both men and women events conclude on Saturday and are worth $10,000 each in prize money and are being played on hard courts.

The tournament in its fifth edition is being held under the patronage of HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Representative of His Majesty the King for Charity Works and Youth Affairs, Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and President of Bahrain Olympic Committee.

Event sponsors are Bahrain Duty Free, Solidarity Holding, GPIC and Bapco.

Today schedule: Matches from 11am with Men/Women Doubles late afternoon.