Mathias Hoplman wins boys singles title

Manama : Mathias Hoplman won the  Boys Singles 12 years and under title in the Fifth E.K.Kanoo Junior Open Tennis Championship yesterday. 

Hoplman an 11-year old student at St Christopher’s School and originally from Switzerland had to work hard to defeat 12-year-old Indian student Sparsh Parmar and top seed who attends the New Millennium School 6-4, 7-5 in the championship. The event held under the patronage of E.K.Kanoo Board Member and Director of Corporate Services, Talal Fuad Kanoo concluded yesterday evening at the Bahrain Tennis Club (BTC) in Juffair.

In cool conditions, Sparsh won an early break in the second game of the first set, only for Mathias to win three games on the trot and a break in game five for a 3-2 lead.

The next four games also amazingly went against serve to give Mathias a 5-4 lead, before he held service to win the first set 6-4.

In a match lasting around an hour-and-a-half, Mathias went 2-0 up in the second set, but Sparsh rallied and then won five consecutive games including two breaks in the fourth and sixth games for a 5-2 lead.

After holding serve in the next game Mathias won a vital break and then leveled at 5-5 in the next.

Mathias then won a further break when he was leading 40-15 in game 11 and then wrapped up the match and claimed the title after holding serve in a strong final game after going 40-0 up.

In the two Unisex finals, Tristan Manners from France was an 8-0 games winner against Indian Rushikesh Sonawane in the 9-10 years category and in an All-Indian 6-8 years category match, top seed Vyom Gupta lost 4-3 to Riyaan Ahmed. The final day matches and closing ceremony was attended by Saleh bin Isa bin Hindi, The King’s Advisor for Youth and Sport Affairs, Khalid Kanoo, Operation Manager of E.K Kanoo, Mehdi Hasan, Ambassador of Bangladeshand other officials. 

Other finals results: 

Boys 14 years and under: Issa Al Issa bt (2)Ali Al Sharif 6-3, 6-2. 

Girls 16 years and under: Manni Zhang bt (1)Aleina Alex 4-6, 6-0, 10-4.