CHARLES Barry of Ireland was one of eight players who advanced last night to the final round of Boys’ Singles Qualifying for the ninth Bahrain ITF Juniors Championship at Bahrain Tennis Club (BTC).
Barry, the qualifiers’ top seed, defeated Siddharth Raghunathan 6-0, 6-1 to keep his hopes alive of playing in the tournament’s Main Draw.
He is now set to face Luka Petrovic of Great Britain, with the winner earning a berth in this week’s highly anticipated events.
Aside from Barry, others to make it through to the final round were second seed Maj Tomac of Slovenia, Ty Switzer of the US, Prasanna Bagade of India, Youssef Baccouche of France, and both Joe Leather and Ali Habib of Great Britain.
All of the matches in qualifying’s final round are scheduled to be played today at 3.30pm at BTC.
All are welcome to attend and watch the exciting action.
Tomac survived his second round match against Pranav Sadhvani of India, who was leading 4-3 in the third set before retiring from the match. Tomac had earlier conceded the first set 1-6 before taking the second 6-4.
Tomac next faces Bagade, who made it to the final round after beating Saleh Almatar of Saudi Arabia 6-2, 6-3.
Leather enjoyed a comfortable 6-0, 6-0 win against third seed Bader Alasous, also from Saudi, to earn his shot at a qualifying berth. He will battle Baccouche, who beat Indian Anshuman Sonawane 6-1, 6-1 in their match.
American Switzer had his own impressive win against Indian Aditya Mori. He triumphed in straight sets 6-0, 6-1.
Habib awaits him as his final round opponent. Habib defeated Hassan Baroudi of Syria to make it into qualifying’s last round.
Following the completion of today’s qualifying, the completion of the Main Draw for both the Boys’ and Girls’ Singles will be held.
Play then begins tomorrow at BTC and continues all the way until Saturday. Aside from the Singles, there will also be action in the Boys’ Doubles and Girls’ Doubles.
For more information on the ninth Bahrain ITF Juniors Championship, call the BTC on +973-17-729561.