Wheat-Lindsey upsets boys’ top seed in ITF Juniors

Patrick Wheat-Lindsey from the USA wasted no time in making his presence felt in the 11th Bahrain ITF Juniors Tennis Championship 2019 after stunning Boys’ Singles top seed Boris Stastny of the Czech Republic in their first round clash yesterday, played at the Bahrain Tennis Club (BTC) hard courts in Juffair. Wheat- Lindsey, ran ked 2,329th in the world, needed three sets to take down the 870th-ranked Stastny 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to make a dream start to the competition.

The result was the major upset of an exciting action-packed Day One, which featured a daylong schedule of 32 matches in both the Boys’ Singles and Girls’ Singles first rounds. Meanwhile, Girls’ Singles top seed and defending champion Nina Danisova (ranked 393rd in the world amongst girls) from Slovakia outplayed wild card Yara Alhogbani from Saudi Arabia 6-1, 6-2 to go through.

From the other seeded boys and girls, only one from each did not make it to the next stage. Unranked qualifier Daniel Abernethy from Great Britain upset boys’ sixth seed Pablo Trochu (ranked 1,141st in the world) from France 5-7, 6-4, 6-2; while another Briton, Issey Purser (ranked 2,549th amongst girls), ousted seventh seed Erika Weil (ranked 1,348th) of Hungary 6-4, 7-6 (4). Action continues today from 4pm with matches in the Boys’ Doubles and Girls’ Doubles. The singles second round will take place Wednesday.

The 11th Bahrain ITF Tennis Juniors Championship 2019 is being held under the patronage of Deputy Prime Minister HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa. It has been organised in cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs, the Bahrain Tennis Federation and the International Tennis Federation (ITF); and is being supported by Bahrain National Gas Company, Bapco and Ebrahim K Kanoo. The tournament is a part of the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors, and it continues the tradition of BTC’s hosting world-class tennis championships each year.

Elsewhere in the Boys’ Singles yesterday, second seed Garv Bahl of India defeated Bahraini wild card Mohamed Al Shehabi 6-0, 6-0; while third seed Vansh Bhagtani, also from India, needed to battle hard to defeat Muneer Al Rawahi from Oman in three sets 6-4, 2-6, 6-1. Fourth-seeded Mark Owen Endler of Germany beat Rahul Jaideep of India 6-4, 6-4 in a closely contested match; while fifth-seeded Briton Alexander Knox Jones outplayed Bahraini wild card Mohammed Alkhan 6-0, 6-0.

Seventh seed Luca Daniel Constantin of Romania followed suit by beating Archie Turner of Great Britain 6-1, 6-1; and eighth seed Archie Graham, another up-and-coming British talent, defeated American Yousef Manna 6-1, 6-1. In the Girls’ Singles, second seed Stefania Bojica of Romania defeated qualifier Aryana Bartlett of Great Britain 6-1, 7-6 (3); while third-seeded Russian Rosaleen Alioussef beat Egyptian qualifier Perihan Auf 6-2, 6-0.

Hagar Ramadan, fourth seed from Egypt, joined them in the next stage with a 6-3, 6-1 win against Renee Marie Acena from the Philippines. Number five seed Jessica Dhome-Casanova of Great Britain then beat Aleina Elizabeth Alex of India 6-2, 6-0; while sixth seed Caroline Fawzy of Egypt defeated Shreya Menon of India 6-2, 6-2. Eighth seed Niva Vicic of Denmark also marched on, overcoming Srihitha Jaligama of India 6-1, 6-4.

Bahrain’s Nazley Nader was also amongst the girls who booked their place in the second round. She did well to claim a 6-1, 6-1 triumph over Tanya Nanda from India.