Yara, Annabel crowned girls’ doubles ITF champions

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Second seeds Yara Alhogbani from Saudi Arabia and Annabel Hristova from Great Britain were yesterday crowned girls’ doubles champions in the first of three successive Bahrain events in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tennis Tour Juniors Calendar.

Yara and Annabel secured their title after battling back from a set down to upset top seeds Tamara Ermakova and Mori Grylak from Israel 6-7 (5), 6-3, 10-7.

Meanwhile, Qatari brothers Mashari and Rashed Nawaf won the boys’ doubles title after beating Ethan Gottschalk of Australia and Yahan Zhang of China 6-4, 6-2 yesterday.

Following both matches, the finalists were presented their respective medals by Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTF) president Shaikh Abdulaziz bin Mubarak Al Khalifa and BTF secretary general Fuad Al Rowaie.

The pair of doubles finals headlined a busy day of action at the BTF courts in Isa Town.

In the girls’ singles, Yara kept her hopes alive of clinching a title double after advancing to the semi-final round.

She punched her ticket with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 win against Ariel Avidan of Israel.

She will next face another Israeli player in Isabell Esther Bilaus, who defeated Mori 6-3, 1-6, 6-1.

The other clash in the last four is between top seed Tamara and Laura Maser of Germany.

Tamara ousted sixth seed Leah Baroudi of Syria 6-1, 6-1 yesterday while Laura defeated Roni Baranes of Israel 6-1, 6-2.

On the distaff, third-seeded Rashed Nawaf made it through to the boys’ singles semi-finals after defeating Ethan Dasset of Belgium 6-1, 6-3.

There, he will take on qualifier Zhang, who ended the dream run of Germany’s Yannick Maser 6-2, 6-0.

The other contest in the final four is between fourth seed Marko Milosavljevic of Serbia and Itay Cohen of Israel.

Milosavljevic advanced after beating eighth seed Tim Vaisman of Israel 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 while Cohen made it through following a 7-6 (3), 6-3 win against Pavel Vysotin of Ukraine.

All four semi-final matches are scheduled for today morning at 9am at the BTF courts.

The ongoing tournament is scheduled to conclude tomorrow.

It is part of the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors Calendar, and it is a J5 level event.

It will be followed by another J5 level event from 31 October to 5 November, and then a J4 event will take place from 7 to 13 November.