South Korea, Japan win

KUCHING: Top two seeded teams South Korea and Japan scored easy opening victories as the final qualifying competition for the ITF World Junior Team Competition for Boys kicked off at Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association Tennis Centre yesterday. Chung Yun Seong led the way for top seeds South Korea as he thrashed New Zealand’s Alexender Calder 6-0, 6-1 in one hour and 40 minutes in the first singles in Group A. His teammate Lee Duck Hee had no problem beating Rawhiti Williams 6-2, 6-0 in the second singles while the pair of Chung Yun Seong and Oh Chan Yeong crashed Williams-Calder 6-1, 6-1 in the doubles for a 3-0 win. In the same group, Thailand sprung an upset as they beat eighth seeds India 2-1 for their first win. Nawakarn Khunjan tamed Alex Solanki 7-5, 6-4 in the first singles to hand the Thais the first point but Nikshep Ballerkere levelled the score 1-1 for India when he beat Art Faoart 6-3, 7-6(5) in the second singles. In the doubles and the deciding match, the Thai combination of Sirawit Daosaengsawangng and Nawakarn overcame Nikshep-Aryan Goveas 6-1, 6-4. South Korea will play Thailand today while New Zealand are up against India. In Group B, second seeds Japan who faced a weaker Iran, made easy meat of their opponents as Tomohiro Masabayashi blanked Arman Jalili Uromiyeh 6-0, 6-0 and Riki Oshima registered a similar score over Ashkan Shekarriz. In the doubles, Renta Tokuda and Tomohiro saw off the pair of Mohamad Kargaran Oroochi and Ashkan Shekarriz 6-0, 6-2 for a 3-0 win. Meanwhile, host Malaysia failed to secure their first win as they went down fighting 1-2 to sixth seeds Philippines in Group D. Alberto Lim Jr was simply too good for Talhah Rahizam, beating the latter 6-1, 6-2 in the first singles while Koay Hao Sheng kept the contention alive by beating Eric Olivarez Jr 6-1, 6-1 in the second singles. In the doubles, Koay and Khairil Anas Abd Rahim put up some opposition to lose the first set 6-4 but Olivarez and Jerome Romualdez closed out the Malaysians in the second set 6-2 to give Philippines three points. The other Group D match saw fourth seeds Australia edging Hong Kong 2-1. Malaysia is facing an even tougher match against the Australians in today’s match. Other teams who won their first matches were China and Taiwan who beat Syria and Kazakhstan 3-0 respectively while Uzbekistan took more than six hours to crack the Indonesian resistance and won 2-1.- www.theborneopost.com