Egypt’s Sherif marches through

TDT | Manama                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Top seed Eyad Reda Ezzat Mohamed Sherif of Egypt barged through to the boys’ singles second round yesterday in the second Bahrain International Tennis Federation (ITF) Juniors Championship 2024, being played at the Bahrain Tennis Federation courts in Isa Town.

Sherif needed to battle back from a set down to oust Turkish qualifier Ziya Ayberk Aydin in three sets 4-6, 6-0, 6-1. He now faces Hartmut Fiedler of Austria in the last 16.

Fiedler beat Nikita Gribyakin of Estonia 6-1, 6-2 in their first round encounter.

Also making it through yesterday were seventh seed Ramazan Kaan Oktay of Turkey, who won the double title in the previous edition of the tournament which concluded last week in the Kingdom, sixth seed Dev Kanbargimath of Romania, Mohammad Alawadhi of Kuwait, Bercel Sandor Takacs of Hungary, and Mustafa Eren Elmas of Turkey.

On the distaff, Taylor Burke of Australia posted an upset in the girls’ singles, taking down fourth seed Milana Konovalova 6-3, 7-5 to march through.

Taylor now faces a big task in her round-of-16 clash against Ioana Stefania Boian of Romani, who, like Oktay in the boys, won a double title last week by taking both the girls’ singles and doubles crowns.

Other winners yesterday were fifth seed Haniya Aman Minhas of Pakistan, sixth seed Luisa Fusil of Slovenia, Ava Khalil of the US, and Joanna Strzelecka of Poland.

Play in the doubles categories also got underway yesterday.

In the boys’ bracket, going through to the quarter-finals were second seeds Rafael Asadullin and Ilya Mosolkin, and third seeds Mars Argun of Turkey and Nikoloz Gurgenidze of Georgia.

Amongst the girls’ pairings, top seeds Viktoria Egorova and Samira Rashidova advanced, as did second seeds Luisa and Yelena Lebeau of France, third seeds Irina Khayndrava and Alina Sogomonyan of Armenia, fourth seeds Alisa Grinkevich and Milana, Sara Dessouky of Egypt and Veronika Koutova of the Czech Republic, and Joanna and Alicja Tomczyk of Poland.

Tournament action continues today at the BTF. The competition is the second J30 ITF event being held in Bahrain over successive weeks.