Arevalo is sole surviving Pinay

Sixteen-year-old Czarina Mae Arevalo of the Philippines marched into the girls’ singles second round following a 6-4, 6-2 victory over American Megan Falcon yesterday in the 13th Mitsubishi Lancer International Juniors Tennis Championships at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

Arevalo, who played in three ITF Juniors tournaments early this year, will face fourth seed Elise Tamaela of the Netherlands, who scored a 6-4, 6-4 win over Indon Diana Julianto.

Arevalo’s victory actually saved the day for host Philippines after the early exits of wild cards Alyssa Labay, Bernardine Sepulveda, Ma. Edna Godoy and Fil-German Anja Peter.

Labay lost to second seed and world No. 22 Silvana Bauer of the Netherlands, 1-6, 5-7; Sepulveda fell to sixth-ranked and world No. 50 Isha Lakhani of India, 1-6, 2-6; Godoy succumbed to Maya Rosa of Indonesia, 1-6, 2-6; and Peter bowed to Sandy Gumulya of Indonesia, 2-6, 2-6.

Defending champion and top seed Hsieh Su-wei of Chinese Taipei survived a tough second set to prevail over Francesca Flavell of Great Britain, 6-1, 7-6 (4).

Hsieh, currently No. 14 in the world, will meet Tiffany Wilford of Australia, who beat compatriot Daniella Dominikovic, 6-3, 6-3.

Eighth-seeded Chan Chin-wei of Chinese Taipei outclassed Lyoo-suh Heesun of Korea, 6-1, 6-1; Sanaa Bhambri of India downed Adriana Szili of Australia, 6-2, 6-3; and Darya Ivano of Australia outplayed Pichaya Laosirichon of Thailand, 6-3, 6-3 to also earn second-round berths in this event presented by Adidas and supported by Wilson ball, Manila Midtown Hotel, Viva Mineral Water, Philippine Sports Commission, Pioneer and 3M.

Local wild cards Yannick Guba, Joseph Arcilla and Ruben Gonzales are seeing action in the boys division which has world No. 31 Go Saeda of Japan as singles top seed.

Americans Michael Koning and Chris Kwon are ranked No. 2 and 3, respectively, followed by Liu Tai-wei and Hsieh Wang-cheng of Chinese Taipei, Bas Van Der Valk of the Netherlands, Nick Crawley of Great Britain and Robert Haybittel of Australia seeded fourth to eighth in that order.