Ioana stuns girls’ top seed

TDT | Manama                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Ioana Stefania Boian of Romania stunned top seed Viktoria Egorovato to advance to the girls’ singles second round yesterday in the Bahrain International Tennis Federation (ITF) Juniors Championship 2024, taking place at the Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTF) courts in Isa Town.

Ioana battled back from a set behind to take down her heavily favoured opponent in a tough three-setter 0-6, 6-4, 6-0 and make it through to the last 16.

There, she will be facing wild card Valentina Sanchez Bronzetti of Spain, who was a 6-3, 6-0 winner against qualifier Cara Du Toit of Namibia.

Also moving forward during yesterday’s play were third seed Alina Sogomonyan of Armenia and seventh seed Irina Khayndrava.

Alina beat Milena Novikova 7-6 (6), 6-4 in their contest, while Irina was a 6-1, 6-4 winner against Polish qualifier Joanna Strzelecka.

Other players to make it to the girls’ singles second round were Oliwia Kuszel of Poland, VD Rashmi Omaya Wijewardana of Sri Lanka, Iana Teodora of Romania, Callista Uchil of India, Casey Mauro of Great Britain and Samira Rashidova. Through On the distaff, top seed Denis Vishenchuk Vishenko marched through to the boys’ singles second round.

Vishenko booked his place after defeating Benediktas Verkovskis of Lithuania 6-1, 6-4 in their opening match of the competition, which is a part of this year’s ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors Calendar. Vishenko is next set to face off with American wild card Asim Hashem in the last 16.

Hashem needed three sets to oust Hassan Ammar of Egypt 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 yesterday.

Meanwhile, other seeded players to barge into the second stage were second seed Ilya Mosolkin, third seed Rafael Asadullin, sixth seed Ramazan Kaan Oktay of Turkey, and his countryman and seventh seed Utku Kerem Biberli.

Mosolkin was a 6-1, 6-1 victor against wild card Adam Alireza of Saudi Arabia, while Asadullin overcame a tough challenge from Hungarian Bercel Sandor Takacs 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.

Oktay beat Austrian Hartmut Fiedler 6-4, 6-0, while Biberli eked past Dimitar Baychev of Bulgaria 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-4. Bahraini wild card Faris Al Toobli lost his match yesterday to Prokhor Smirnov 0-6, 0-6.

Tournament action continues today at the BTF. All are welcome to watch the matches.

The competition is a J30 event, which continues until Saturday later this weekend.

It will be followed by another J30 event between February 26 and March 2, forming an impressive back-to-back of ITF juniors tournaments in the Kingdom.