Mohammed upsets Fares

Unseeded Mohammed Al Khan upset fourth seed Fares Hajjar winning 6-2, 6-1 yesterday in the Round of 16 of the Boys 12 years and under singles on the third round of the 21st Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK) Juniors Open Tennis Championship at the Bahrain Tennis Club premises in Juffair.

The other three seeded players all advanced with little difficulty as top seed Ken Belt easily won 6-0, 6-0, while second seed Sparsh Parmar advanced with a 6-0, 6-1 victory against Mubarak Al Khalifa and third seed Mohammed Al Shehabi got the better of Dhaij Al Khalifa 6-4, 6-1.

In other matches played, Anshuman Sonawane came from a set down to defeat Jaber Abdul A’al in a three-set thriller 5-7, 6-2, 14-12, Erwin Godinho won 6-4, 6-0 against Fares Yousef, Sai Raghavan Balakrishnan brushed aside James Michael 6-2, 6-1 and Kazuma Miyawaki was a 6-1, 6-2 victor against Vineesh Mittal.

The Boys 14 years and under doubles first round featured just one match with Vineesh Mittal and P Kishan winning 6-2, 6-3 against Mohammed Huda and Essam Janahi.

Three other pairs - K Miyawaki/A Sonawane, Pajouyan Nioushal/Maro Ugarkovic and Riku Takano/Hiroki Wakamatsu made it to the quarter- finals after their opponents’ conceded walkovers.

Patron of the event is Abdul Karim Bucheery BBK’s Chief Executive Officer. The event features more than 150 players registered for the championship which runs until February 17 with seven categories and also includes Unisex 6-8 years and 9-10 years starting today from 4pm, Boys 16 years and under singles from tomorrow, Boys 14 years and under singles and Girls 18 years and under singles.