Russian pair clinch girls’ doubles tennis title at Premier Sarawak ITF J300

KUCHING (April 26): Yuliya Perapekhina and Polina Kuharenko lifted the girls doubles crown of the 42nd Premier Sarawak (l) International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Junior Tour J300 Kuching at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association Centre here today.

The third seeded pair from Russia came back from one set down 3-6 to beat the combination of Malika Amirgalieva (Kazakhstan) and Lee Hyunyee of South Korea 6-3, 6-5 in the next two sets.

Perapekhina is on track to score a double when she takes on top seed Reina Goto of Japan in today’s girls singles final.

The 11th seed dismissed the challenge of ninth seed Anatasia Lizunova of Russia 6-0, 6-2 while Reina eased past South Korea’s Hong Yeri 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the final.

Meanwhile, sixth seeds Shion Itusaski-Hyu Kawanishi of Japan won the boys doubles after cruising past eighth seeds Hitesh Chauhan (India) and Daniel Javanovski of Australia 6-1, 6-3 in the final.

The boys singles will be played between top seed Ryo Tabata of Japan and 16th seed Arnav Paparkar of India. The Japanese showed Ko Min Ho of South Korea the exit in straight sets of 6-4, 6-3 while Arnav defeated 14th seed and compatriot Hitesh Chauhan 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

Tournament organising chairman Dato Patrick Liew, who is SLTA president, gave away the prizes to the doubles winners.