Top seeds dominate in Doubles

Manama : Top seeds Ruben Gonzales from the Philippines and Sem Verbeek of the Netherlands defeated Bahraini duo Hassan Abdul Nabi and Kareem Abdul Nabi 6-2, 6-1 yesterday in the first round of the Men’s Doubles at the Sixth Bahrain International Tennis Federation (ITF) Futures Men’s Professional Tournament at the Bahrain Tennis Club premises in Juffair.
The Swedish duo of second seeds Markus Eriksson and Milos Sekulic also advanced against the Netherlands two win against the duo of Roy Sarut De Walk and Vincent Van Den Honert 6-3, 7-5.
In other matches, third seeds Anis Ghorbel of Tunisia and Jorge Montero from Cile won 6-1, 6-0 against Uzbekistan’s Sanjar Fayziev and Saida’lo Saidkarimo and Kevin and Tallon Griekspoor knocked out Abdul Rahman and Yousif Qaed 6-1, 6-2.
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 today at 11am are Tallon Griekspoor (Netherlands, ranked 318) against Baptiste Crepatte (France) and Michal Konecny (Czech Republic, 362) against Sem Verbeek (Netherlands), with Filip Horansky (Slovakia, 368) seeded three and Sanjar Fayziev (Uzbekistan, 380) fourth.
GCC players in action include Bahrain’s Abdul Rahman Janahi against Qatari Zayed Mubarak Shannan.
Hassan Abdul Nabi of Bahrain takes on Germany’s Florian Fallert and compatriot Yousif Qaed faces Kuwait’s Abdulla Maqdes.