Defending Champions Tumble in Opening Round of Bahrain ITF Junior Circuit

TDT | Manama

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The International Tennis Federation (ITF) Junior Circuit J60 tournament in Bahrain saw dramatic upsets in its opening round, with the champions from the previous week’s edition suffering early exits in both the boys’ and girls’ singles draws. The tournament, hosted by the Bahrain Tennis Federation, has now finalised its qualifiers for the round of 16.

In the boys’ singles, defending champion Malik Al-Qurna of Jordan was eliminated after a decisive straight-sets loss to Daniil Kvasov of Uzbekistan, falling 6-3, 6-0. The girls’ singles witnessed a similar shock as the Dutch defending champion was defeated by Turkey’s Melis Yildirim with a score of 6-1, 6-4. These early exits have completely opened up the third week of the circuit.

Meanwhile, top seed Arnav Paparkar of India advanced smoothly, overcoming Uzbekistan’s Abdulrahman Karimov 6-3, 6-4. Other seeded players also progressed, including Japanese seventh seed Daisuke Hashimoto, who defeated Javier Montes Jimenez of Spain.

However, local Bahraini hope Ahmed Al-Sayed exited in the first round after losing to Turkey’s Doruk Çalıkoglu 6-3, 6-4. The day concluded with the second seed in the boys’ draw, Omar Kandeel of Egypt, securing a straightforward 6-0, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Nicholas Scott.