Egypt’s Hala Khaled advances

Manama : Egyptian top seed Hala Khaled comfortably defeated India’s Amritalakshmi Shanmugam 6-3, 6-0 to advance to the quarter finals of the Girls Singles in the Eighth Bahrain Junior International Tennis Federation (ITF) Championships yesterday at the Bahrain Tennis Club (BTC) in Juffair.

Second seed Hala Fouad of Egypt had a scare after having to come back from a set down to defeat Turkey’s Ipek Cevik (Egy) 4-6 7-6(4) 6-3, while third seed Sadaf Sadeghvaziri was a comfortable 6-4, 6-1 winner over India’s Rashmika Rajan and fourth seeded Briton Alexandra Hunter outplayed Bahrain’s Ridah Nayeemullah (Brn) 6-0, 6-0.

The fifth seed from Cyprus Themis Haliou (Cyp) bt Charlotte Navin-Weinstein of Britain 7-5 7-6(2), sixth seed Aaliya Ebrahim was a 6-4  7-6(3) winner over Annali Olivelle and seventh seeded Turkish Zeynep Sena Sarioglan was an easy 6-2, 6-2 winner over India’s Anaya Singh.

The only unseeded player to make the quarter finals was India’s Salsa Aher after coming from a set down to beat Briton Amelia Bissett 4-6, 6-0, 6-2.

Today’s action resumes at 9am with the Boys Singles Round of 16 from 9am and then the Boys and Girls Doubles at 4pm.

Other results (seeds in brackets): 

Boys Doubles (1st Rd): (1)Ali Dawani (Brn) /Armin Rostami (Iri) bt Tin Dizdarevic (Cro)/Andrija Pavlovic (SUI) 6-1 2-6 (10-6); Jaishvin Sidana (Ind)/Yusuke Tamaki (Jpn) bt Ali Gulen (Tur)/Mohammed Atif Sheikh (Ind) 6-4 6-1; Abdullah Al Barwani (Oma/Faisal Alrebdi (KSA) bt (3)Fares Al Janahi (UAE)/Adham Gaber (Egy) 3-6 6-4 (10-6).

Girls Doubles (1st Rd): Sai Rama Balakrishnan/Rhea Singh (Ind) bt Ridah Nayeemullah (Brn)/ Kalpaka Pradip (Ind) 6-3 4-6 (10-5); (4)Hala Fouad (Egy)/ Anaya Singh (Ind) bt Bea Francesca Acena (Phi)/Aleina Elizabeth Alex (Ind) 6-3 6-2; Amelia Bissett/Annali Olivelle (Gbr) bt Zeynep Sena Sarioglan/Tuana Tinaztepe (Tur) 6-2 6-4.