Katarina claims upset win in ITF tennis

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Katarina Curcic of Serbia upset third seed Munisa Ashurbekova of Uzbekistan in three sets yesterday to advance to the girls’ singles second round in the second Bahrain event on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tennis Tour Juniors Calendar 2022.

Katarina narrowly won the first set before giving up the second to be forced to play the decisive third. There, she dug deep into her arsenal and pulled off the hard-earned victory with a 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-4 final score line.

Katarina will next face off with Isabell Esther Bilaus of Israel in the second round. Isabell qualified with a straight-sets win over Rokaya Zaki of Egypt on Monday.

Also advancing in girls’ singles play yesterday were top seed Tamara Ermakova, second seed Eda Numanoglu of Turkey, Juliane Koschinski of Germany and Diva Bhatia of India.

Tamara made it through following a 6-4, 6-0 win over German wild card Marta Podolak, while Eda advanced with a 7-5, 7-5 win over Israeli wild card Monique Wigoda.

Juliane joined them after claiming a 6-3, 6-0 win over fellow-qualifier Aleksandra Rozkalne of Latvia, and Diva won yesterday against qualifier Neha Krishnan from the US 6-1, 6-1.

In round two, Tamara will face Zeynep Polat of Turkey, Eda will play Rony Baranes of Israel, Juliane will take on fourth seed May Fadida, also of Israel, and Diva will play Israeli sixth seed Kariman Buqai.

On the distaff, second seed Vineeth Mutyala of India led six other players into the boys’ singles second round yesterday.

Mutyala defeated Issah Ali of Great Britain 6-2, 6-1 to go through.

Joining him were fourth seed Rashed Nawaf of Qatar, fifth seed Marko Milosavljevic of Serbia, sixth seed Aril Kayra Tuna of Turkey, Maxwell Castle of Great Britain, Seth Sadikov of Georgia and Yahan Zhang of China.

Nawaf was a 6-1, 6-3 winner over Yali Rodrigues Shrim of Brazil, while Milosavljevic defeated Aryan Nanda of India, who retired after trailing 0-3 in the first set.

Tuna won against Belgian qualifier Tibo Meermans 6-5, 6-2, and Castle claimed a 6-3, 6-2 win over Tiebe Louvaert, also a qualifier from Belgium.

Sadikov advanced after battling back from a set down to beat Maciej Zarebski of Poland 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 and Zhang was a 6-3, 6-1 winner over Tim Vaisman from Israel. Meanwhile, a number of doubles matches were played yesterday in the girls’ and boys’ first round.

In the girls’ doubles, emerging triumphant were the pairings of Katarina and German Laura Maser, number one seeds Munisa and Eda, second seeds Tamara and Mori Grylak of Israel, third seeds May and Kariman from Israel, fourth seeds Leah Baroudi from Syria and Tia Darrag from Egypt, Shira Buhadana and Inbar Pony, also from Israel, Zeynep and Aleksandra, the British pair of Annabel Hristova and Vlada Kozak, and the Romanian-Indian tandem of Daria-Maria Anghel and Diya Tamse.

In the boys’ doubles, winners were top seeds Dmitry Bessonov and Milosavljevic, second seeds Castle and Mutyala, fourth seeds Rayan Sajjid Koothrat of India and Yannick Maser of Germany, Nawaf with brother Mashari, German Max Pade and Vaisman, Nanda and Zarebski, Zhang and Australian teammate Ethan Gottschalk, and Seth and American partner David Prasievi.

Play continues today at the Bahrain Tennis Federation courts in Isa Town starting from 9am. The ongoing tournament is the second Bahrain ITF event being held in succession.

It follows last week’s competition, which concluded on Sunday. Both are J5 level tournaments on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors Calendar 2022. A J4 ITF event will be hosted by Bahrain from 7 to 13 November.