Ariana, Venkat keep hopes alive

TDT | Manama                                                       

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Top seeds Ariana Gogulina of Kazakhstan and Venkat Rishi Batlanki of the US both stayed on course to secure impressive title-doubles in the Bahrain ITF Juniors 2023 tournament, currently being played at the Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTF) hard courts in Isa Town.

Ariana remained in contention for the titles in both the girls’ singles and doubles categories, while Venkat kept in the running for the first-place trophies in the boys’ singles and doubles. Ariana advanced to the girls’ singles semi-finals yesterday after beating sixth seed Liliya Piskun 6-2, 6-2.

She will next take on third seed Sosanne Malak of Egypt, who was a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Luisa Fusil of Slovenia in their match yesterday. The other final four encounter will be between seventh seed Alina Sogomonyan and Arina Malygina.

Alina edged past Simona Cucu of Romania 6-4, 6-4 in their clash yesterday while Arina overcame a tough challenge from Kazakhstan’s Adiya Omarbek 6-3, 0-6, 6-4. Meanwhile, in the girls’ doubles, Ariana and Adiya, the fourth seeds, advanced to the gold medal match after beating Simona and Emily Lederer of Austria 7-5, 6-2 in their semi-final yesterday.

They will take on Luisa and Pallavi Patel of India, who beat Arina and Anastasia Myachina 6-3, 3-6, 10-8. In the boys’ singles, top-seeded Venkat won his quarter-final against eighth seed Dev Kanbargimath.

Dev won the first set 6-2 but Venkat was leading in the second 4-3 when Dev retired. Venkat will face sixth seed Bora Bakici of Turkey, who won over third seed Samprit Sharma of India 6-4, 6-1 in their match yesterday.

The other final four encounter will be between fifth seed Josh Hinton from Great Britain and Andres Pereiro Lopez of Spain. Josh was a 6-3, 6-3 winner against Vishnu Balachandar of the US, while Andres overcame Radu Cojocaru of Australia 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-2 to advance.

The boys’ doubles crown will be contested by the pairs of Venkat and Dev and third seeds Bora and Cagan Efe Tufekci. Venkat and Dev beat Turks Ozan Avanoglu and Mustafa Ege Topbas 7-6 (4), 6-3, while Bora and Cagan overcame second seeds Samprit and Rushikesh Sonowane 7-5, 6-1.

The singles semi-finals are scheduled to be held today at the BTF, along with both doubles finals. The tournament is the second of three straight ITF events being hosted by the Kingdom. It is a J30 event that is part of the 2023 International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tennis Tour Juniors, which features the world’s top tennis talents aged 13 to 18.