Bahl, Danisova advance to quarters

Boys’ second seed Garv Bahl from India and girls’ top seed Nina Danisova of Slovakia barged into their respective singles quarter-finals yesterday in the 11th Bahrain ITF Tennis Juniors Championship 2019, being played at Bahrain Tennis Club (BTC) in Juffair. Bahl battled for three sets before beating British qualifier Matteo Fuschillo 7-6 (3), 1-6, 6-3 to book his seat in the Boys’ Singles last eight. Danisova, on the other hand, kept her Girls’ Singles title-defence on track with a well-deserved 6-2, 6-2 triumph over Tanya Nanda of India. Meanwhile, all three seeded tandems in the Boys’ Doubles made it through to the semi-final round.

But that was not the case in the Girls’ Doubles, as the top three seeded pairings were all eliminated. Bahl was joined in the Boys’ Singles next round by four of the other five remaining seeds. They included fourth-seeded Mark Owen Endler of Germany, fifth seed Alexander Knox Jones of Great Britain, number seven seed Luca-Daniel Constantin of Romania and eighth seed Archie Graham, also from Great Britain. Third seed Vansh Bhagtani of India was upset by Felipe Mikkelsen of Denmark.

The quarter-final line-up was completed by the unseeded British duo of Oliver Richards and Daniel Abernethy. Bahl faces Graham next, Endler takes on Constantin, Knox Jones goes head to head with Mikkelsen and Richards and Abernethy lock horns. Amongst the girls, Danisova advanced to the quarters along with second seed Stefania Bojica of Romania, third seed Rosaleen Alioussef of Russia and fourth seed Hagar Ramadan of Egypt.

But three other seeds fell, including fifth seed Jessica Dhome-Casanova of Great Britain, Caroline Fawzy of Egypt and Nina Vicic of Denmark. Briton Issey Purser was the eighth player to make it through. In the quarter-finals, Danisova takes on Egyptian qualifier Jermine Sherif who defeated Dhome-Casanova in the second round. Bojica plays Briton Olivia Rook who beat Fawzy, Alioussef battles another Egyptian qualifier in Mariam Atia who ousted Vicic, and Ramadan faces Purser.

Meanwhile, top-seeded pair Endler and Pablo Trochu of France qualified for the Boys’ Doubles semi-finals after beating Mikkelsen and Andrej Jovanovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-4. The winners now meet fourth-seeded Indian pairing Bhagtani and Rahul Jaideep. The other semi-final encounter is between third-seeded Britons Graham and Knox Jones and their countrymen Abernethy and Fuschillo. In the Girls’ Doubles, Rook and fellow-Briton Aryana Bartlett took down top seeds Bojica and Alioussef 6-3, 7-5 to advance to the semi-finals.

There they will meet fourth seeds Anna Lajos of Hungary and Lia Mosimann of Switzerland. Purser and Indian partner Rhea Singh also marched through after upsetting second seeds Danisova and Dhome- Casanova 6-2, 6-2. They will now meet Indian tandem Saniya Manoj Masand and Hrudaya Shah, who took down third seeds Ramadan and Fawzy