Continuing their run of convincing performances, Mihika Yadav and Ojasvinee Singh reached the girls’ singles semifinals of the ITF Asian Junior tennis championships here on Thursday.
Although Mihika was posed a greater challenge by local girl Simran Kaur Sethi in their quarterfinal, Ojasvinee’s 7-6(5), 6-1 win over eighth seed Yukina Saigo was by no means easy.
In fact, the fourth seed was on the brink of being broken by her Japanese opponent in the eleventh game but saved two break points.
Ojasvinee failed to dominate Saigo decisively in the opening set because of her reluctance to attack the ball. Her passiveness almost cost her the set but the Japanese’s tendency to commit errors bailed Ojasvinee out.
The second set, though, was a different story. Ojasvinee meets top seed Kamonwan Buayam of Thailand in the semifinals.
Mihika will contest the other semifinal against fifth seed Tamachan Momkoonthod.
Great escapeThe 14-year-old’s win over Simran was a bewildering escape from defeat. The latter had quite comfortably gained the first set 6-2 and broke in the ninth game of the second to serve for the match when everything unravelled for Simran. Mihika broke back to make it 5-5. The resultant momentum saw her win eight games on the trot to seal victory.
Second seed Pranjala Yadlapalli, though, failed to make the semis as Momkoonthod outclassed her 6-1, 6-3.
In the boys’ section, Sumit Nagal stumbled to a 6-4, 6-2 loss against third seed Yun Seong Chung of South Korea in a tense encounter between the doubles partners.
Chung meets Japan’s Ken Onishi in the semifinals and so do Lee Duck Hee and Weiqiang Zheng.
The latter pair will also be seen in the boys’ doubles finals against Onishi and Shoma Kato. In the girls category, top seeds Kamonwan Buayam and Yijia Shao will meet the unheralded team of Vasanti Shinde and Dhruthi Venugopal.
The results: Quarterfinals: Boys: Lee Duck Hee (KOR) bt Sora Fukuda (JPN) 7-5, 7-6(1); Weiqiang Zheng (CHN) bt Makoto Ochi (JPN) 6-2, 6-3; Yun Seong Chung (KOR) bt Sumit Nagal 6-4, 6-2; Ken Onishi (JPN) bt Teeradon Tortrakul (THA) 6-3, 0-6, 6-3.
Girls: Kamonwan Buayam (THA) bt Claire Yoonkee Choi Spackman (HKG) 6-0, 6-2; Ojasvinee Singh bt Yukina Saigo (JPN) 7-6(5), 6-1; Mihika Yadav bt Simran Kaur Sethi 2-6, 7-5, 6-0; Tamachan Momkoonthod (THA) bt Pranjala Yadlapalli 6-1, 6-3.
Doubles: Semifinals: Boys: Lee Duck Hee & Weiqiang Zheng bt Ken Onishi & Shoma Kato (JPN) 6-1, 2-6, 10-5; Sora Fukuda & Makoto Ochi bt Yun Seong Chung & Sumit Nagal 6-3, 3-6, 13-11.
Girls: Kamonwan Buayam & Yijia Shao (CHN) bt Tamachan Momkoonthod & Plobrung Plipuech (THA) 6-2, 7-5; Vasanti Shinde & Dhruthi Venugopal bt Ojasvinee Singh & Pranjala Yadlapalli 6-3, 6-1.
