Manni clinches singles title

Manama : Manni Zhang came from a set down to defeat top seed Aleina Alex 4-6, 6-0, 10-4 to claim the Girls Singles 16 years and under category title yesterday at the Fifth E.K.Kanoo Junior Open Tennis Championship at the Bahrain Tennis Club (BTC) premises in Juffair.

Aleina started well in the first set with an opening break game, but was pegged back immediately when Manni broke serve in the second game.

The next three games went to Aleina with two further breaks for a 4-1 lead, but Manni fought back to level at 4-4 following her own break of serve.

Aleina then secured a fourth break of serve for a 5-4 lead and then won the next game for the set.

In the second set, Manni opened by holding serve and then won a break and despite fierce resistance from her opponent ran out a 6-0 winner to set up a third set tie-break.

The third set was evenly poised at 3-3, but Manni then grabbed five consecutive points for a 8-3 lead before taking the title.

“It was a good match and difficult in the first set, then I picked up my game in the second and carried the momentum in tie-break set,” said Manni.

The runner-up Aleina said, “The first set was tough despite winning it, then I started to lose my fitness and stamina and it took its toll as tiredness contributed to my loss in the tie-break set.”

Also 10 qualifying matches in two phases were played in the Unisex 9-10 years age category as part of the mini tennis festival gets underway, with the bulk of the matches in the 9-10 and 6-8 years categories in the competition proper taking place today and tomorrow.

Results: 

Unisex 8-10 years qualifiers: (2nd Rd qualifier): Neveta Vinod bt Arit Arora 6-4, Aseem Khaled bt Gokul Rajesekar 6-2, Anthony Ghosn bt Trisha Ashok 6-1, Vandan Nagar bt Saharsh Nouli 6-0. 

(1st Rd): Nevita Vinod bt Kripa Shah 6-1, Arit Arora w/o Hamad Khalid, Gokul Rajesekar bt Mohammed Kaif 6-0, Andre Carlos bt Haya Nass 6-2, Anthony Ghosn bt Gaurav Bhatia 6-0, Saharsh Nouli w/o Ahmed Bader.