Amritraj-Wang cops doubles title

Second seed Prakash Amritraj of the United States and Wang Teu Tzuoo of Chinese Taipei ended a string of huge victories by the German pair of Simon Stadler and Philipp Kohlchreiber with a 7-6 (4), 6-2 win yesterday to clinch the doubles title in the 11th Mitsubishi Lancer International Juniors Tennis Championship at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Courts.

A day after upstaging the fourth seeded American duo of KC Corkery and Matthew Emery, to book a finals seat, Wang and Armitraj, who won the Group III doubles tilt in Indonesia last month, fought Kohlchreiber and Stadler, whose victims included top pick Josh Burman and Chris Martin of the United States and third seed Panu Karanes and Pramote Malasitt of Thailand, in a grueling first tiebreak before rediscovering their deadly form to take the ensuing set and the match.

But Wang, ranked 29th in the juniors world rankings, was far from himself earlier in the day after the top-seeded 15-year-old lost to the other half of their doubles victim, the sixth-ranked Stadler, in the boys singles, 7-5, 6-3.

Stadler, the No. 1 juniors player in the under-15 section back home, capitalized on a back injury by Wang, who won the Under-14 Orange Ball tourney in Miami, Florida last year, to rally from a 3-5 down in the first set and 2-3 in the second to win in an hour and 25 minutes and set a finals duel with second-ranked Matthew Emery of the US.

Coming off an easy 6-2, 6-4 waylaying of Aleksandar Djuranovic of Germany in the quarterfinals, Emery made a fitting follow up by winning over another German, this time the 16-year-old Kohlchreiber, 7-6 (1), 6-4.

On the distaff side, fifth-ranked Nicole Kriz of Australia downed Wilawan Choptang of Thailand, 6-1, 6-2, to forge a final encounter with Indonesian sensation Angelique Widjaja, winner over Prariyawan Ratanakrong of Thailand, 6-3, 7-6 (3). - J