KUCHING: Vietnam booked the final ticket to the Junior Fed Cup Asia-Oceania qualifying event in Melbourne, Australia after they beat Sri Lanka 2-0 in the play-off for third/fourth place in the pre-qualifying last month.
China finished in first position by beating Malaysia 2-0, with Ye Qiu Yu beating Aslina Chua 6-4, 6-3 and You Xiao Di beating Choo Lyn Yuen 6-2, 6-0.
Both have already qualified for the qualifiers. Coming in fifth in the six-team competition were Turkmenistan who beat Iran 2-1.
In the World Junior Team Girls (U14) pre-qualifying, Kazakhstan justified their top seeds ranking as they finished as the top team after blanking Philippines 3-0.
Gozal Ainitdinova and Kamila Bolatova gave Kazakhstan their third point in the doubles when they overcame Maia Bernadette Balce and Maria Dominque Ong 4-1, 4-2.
On Thursday, Darya Shevchenko delivered the top seeds’ first point by beating Maria 4-1, 4-2 and Gozal was equal to the task when she tamed Erica Mae Manduriao 4-0, 4-2.
Singapore came in third after beating Iran 3-0 while in fifth to eighth positions were Vietnam, Jordan, Syria and Turkmenistan.
Meanwhile, fourth seeds Philippines look set to top the World Junior Team Boys (U14) contest when they upstaged second seeds Kazakhstan 3-0 in a play-off match yesterday.
They won’t be facing much problem to beat Syria in today’s match as the latter had lost 1-2 to Kazakhstan on Thursday.
United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka and Singapore are tussling for the fourth to sixth positions while the seventh to tenth positions are already decided.
Vietnam edged Saudi Arabia for seventh place while Turkmenistan edged Jordan for ninth place. (www.theborneopost.com)
