TENNIS – Alina Korneeva from Russia knocked out second seed Hanne Vandewinkel from Belgium yesterday to advance to the singles quarter-finals of the W75 Manama Bahrain Open – the first-ever tournament to be hosted by the kingdom on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Women’s World Tennis Tour Calendar.
Korneeva put on a class performance to win 7-5, 6-3 and march through to the tournament’s next stage.
There, she will take on another Belgian in fifth seed Sofia Costoulas, who was a 6-1, 6-3 winner yesterday in her second-round contest with Italian Camilla Rosatello.
Their clash is scheduled for today as one of four fixtures in the elite eight.
Also making it through yesterday were sixth seed Jessika Ponchet from France and Carol Young Suh Lee from the US.
Ponchet beat Vittoria Paganetti from Italy 6-2, 6-2 while Suh Lee was leading 6-2, 1-0 in the second set when fourth-seeded opponent Maria Timofeeva from Uzbekistan retired.
Ponchet and Suh Lee will next be squaring off in the quarters.
Elsewhere in this stage, third seed Arantxa Rus from the Netherlands plays eighth seed Carole Monnet from France, while Claire Liu from the US battles Fiona Ferro, also from France.
Today’s singles quarter-final action is scheduled to begin at 11am. All are welcome to attend and watch the exciting matches at the Public Security Officers Club in Gudaibiya.
The W75 Manama Bahrain Open offers $60,000 in total prize money, and it features some of the world’s top women’s professional players with leading Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings.
W75 tournaments on the ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour offer 75 WTA ranking points to the singles winner.
These competitions are in similar standing to a men’s ATP Challenger event within the international tennis structure.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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