The battle begins
Manama : The Sixth Bahrain International Tennis Federation (ITF) Futures Men’s Professional Tournament got underway yesterday with 16 men’s first qualifying singles matches at the Bahrain Tennis Club premises in Juffair.
Three of the matches went into three sets with Amal Sultanbekov of Uzbekistan defeating Qatar’s Jabor Mohammed Ali Mutawa 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-1, German Alexander Braun was a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 winner over Tajikistan’s Fariduni Hamid and Isa Mammetgulyyev from Turkmenistan worked hard to beat Andrei Glvac of Slovakia 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Among the GCC competitors, Bahrain’s Kareem Abdul Nabi lost 6-1, 6-1 to the third seeded Switzerland player Andrew Ruppli and Yousif Dhaif was knocked out by Germany’s Jonathan Morr seeded 12th 6-0, 6-0.
Big local regional winners were Qatari Mousa Shanan Zayed who was a 6-1 6-1 win against Atlymyrat Gurbanov from Turkmenistan and Abdullah Maqdes from Kuwait with a comfortable 6-0, 6-0 victory over India’s Avneet Singh.
Top seeded Spaniard Aaron Cortes Alcaraz in the qualifiers beat Turkmenistan’s Georgiy Pochay 6-4, 6-1 and second seeded Swede Milos Sekulic got the better of Anshuman Gulia of India 6-0, 6-1.
The second round of qualifying continues today from 4pm to determine which eight players will compete in the singles event of 32 set to start tomorrow with the finals on Saturday.
A doubles competition will also get underway tomorrow and finish on Saturday.
This Championship in its sixth edition is being held under the patronage of HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Representative of His Majesty the King for Charity Works and Youth Affairs, Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and President of Bahrain Olympic Committee.
Top seeds in the main singles starting tomorrow are Tallon Griekspoor (Netherlands, ranked 318), Michal Konecny (Czech Republic, 362), Filip Horansky (Slovakia, 368) and Sanjar Fayziev (Uzbekistan, 380), with wild card entries being awarded to three Bahrain players - Abdul Rahman Janahi, Hassan Abdul Janahi and Yousif Qaed.
The tournament director is Bahrain Tennis Club board member Ali Khonji, while Qatar’s Dr Ashraf Hamouda heads the panel of referees and is assisted by Bahrain’s Ahmed Al Hawaj.
Other referees include Kuwaitis, Abdel Raoof Abdel Salam, Ali Al Mutairi and Hassan Ashkanani, from Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Al Ajaji, Yousuf Turayf and Jassim Akakah and from Morocco Abdelhaq Jawar, while 20 Bahrainis have been appointed as line judges.
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