Indian juniors shine on ITF circuit

Shailesh Soni

Indian junior Saurabh Singh stormed into the quarter-finals of the Copa Merengue Cup 2001, a Grade 4 event being played at Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Saurabh defeated fourth seed Braen Aneiros of Panama 2-6; 6-3; 7-6(5) in the first round. In the second round he beat the lucky loser, Brian Wong of Hong Kong 6-2, 6-2.

He now will face Sebastian Salas of Mexico in the quarter-finals. Salas defeated fifth seed Juan Berrido Fernandez of the Dominican Republic 6-4, 6-2 in the second round.

Stephen Amritraj of the United States, seeded 8th, entered the second round of the tournament, where he will face qualifier Jorge Williams of Mexico. Earlier, in the first round, he defeated qualifier Irving Morales of Venezuala 6-2, 6-2.

Saurabh Singh is also in the doubles draw, partnering Bryson Bowden of the United States. The pair will face second seeds Juan Berrido of the Dominican Republic and Brian Aneiros of Panama.

Saurabh, 16, hails from Chandigarh and is currently ranked 358 in singles on the ITF listings. In the January 2001, Saurabh lost in quarter-finals of the Indian ITF junior tournament at Chandigarh to Sunil Kumar Sipaeya 6-4, 6-3. At the Indian ITF junior tournament in Delhi, he lost in the semis to Nishank Mishra 6-1, 6-3.

At the Movenpick Grade-3 International junior tournament being played in Giza, Egypt, Sania Mirza and Sasha Abraham moved into the girls' singles second round.

Sania, ranked 63 on ITF listing, is the top seed. She defeated Alexandra Ion of Romania 6-4, 6-0 in the first round and will meet Reem Raouf of Egypt in the second round.

Sasha Abraham, ranked 183 on the ITF listing, also won her first round match 6-1, 6-0 and will now face Salma Seyam of Egypt next.

Sasha, who recently turned 16, is the third highest ranked Indian girl in the ITF list after Sania and Kegha Vakharia. She is playing after a three-month break since touring with the AITA squad to the Eastern ITF circuit where she had five first round losses.

Krushmi Cheddha, ranked 968 on ITF listing, lost in the first round to Andreia Kolczonay of Hungry 2-6, 4-6.

In the boys' section, Karan Rastogi, ranked 244 on the ITF, is one of the seeds, and will face Temir Akkaziev of Kyrghyzstan in the first round. Akkaziev is ranked 423 on the ITF

Another Indian in the draw, Rishi Behl went down in the first round to Amadeus Fulford-Jones of Great Britain 5-7, 5-7.