FUSCHILLO Matteo yesterday proved the wild card he received was worth it as he stormed into the main draw of the ITF Juniors Tennis Championship with emphatic victories in the qualifying round at the Bahrain Tennis Club in Juffair.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian and British delegations had plenty of reasons to celebrate as seven of their players punched their tickets into the main draw.
Jermine Sherif, Mariam Atia and Perihan Auf from Egypt were joined by Briton Aryana Bartlett as the four players to qualify for the girls’ singles competition.
Meanwhile, Fuschillo, Archie Turner and Daniel Abernethy from Great Britain made it through to the boys’ singles along with Alexander Borup of Denmark.
Main draw action begins today at 9am and resumes after a break at 4pm in the afternoon. Entrance is free.
The 11th Bahrain ITF Tennis Juniors Championship 2019 is being held under the patronage of Deputy Prime Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa and in cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs, the Bahrain Tennis Federation and the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
The main sponsors are Banagas, Bapco and Ebrahim K Kanoo.
More than 100 players from 30 countries are participating.
The top seed in the girls section is defending champion Nina Danisova of Slovakia. Stefania Bojica of Romania is the second seed while Rosaleen Alioussef of Russia is third.
Fourth through eighth are Hagar Ramadan of Egypt, Jessica Dhome-Casanova of Great Britain, Carolin Fawzy also from Egypt, Erika Weil from Hungary and Nina Vicic of Denmark.
In the boys category, Boris Stastny of the Czech Republic is the number one seed. Garv Bahl and Vansh Bhagtani of India are second and third while Mark Owen Endler of Germany is fourth.
Alexander Knox Jones of Great Britain is fifth, Pablo Trochu of France sixth while rounding out the seeds are Luca-Daniel Constantin of Romania and Archie Graham of Great Britain.
In yesterday’s final round of the girls’ qualifying draw, Jermine defeated Jannat Kaur Anand 6-1, 6-1. Aryana followed suit with a 6-1, 6-0 triumph over Falak Singh, while Mariam won her match against Shreya Menon 6-0, 6-0. Perihan completed the qualifiers after beating.
Encounter
Zenia Baretto 6-4, 7-6 (2) in a tough encounter.
Despite their losses in qualifying, Jannat, Shreya and Zania will still be playing in the main draw having earned their slots as lucky losers. Bahrain’s Nazley Nader and Saudi Arabia’s Yara Alhogbani are also in as wild cards.
In the boys’ qualifying round yesterday, Fuschillo beat Elias Anwar from France 6-3, 6-1. Turner defeated Yousef Manna of the US 6-1, 6-4, while Abernethy overcame another American in Paul Blair 6-1, 6-4. Borup rounded out the advancing quartet with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Sparsh Parmar of India.
Manna will be playing in the main draw as a lucky loser. Bahrain will also have three boys competing as wild cards – Moahmmed Alkhan, Ali Al Sharif and Mohamed Al Shehabi.
For more information contact BTC on +973-17-729561 or e-mail the club at bahrain.tennisclub@gmail.com.