Dy, Dandan pull off upsets, enter q’finals

Ninth seed Denise Dy and Kyle Dandan got going when the goings got tough and pulled off a pair of stirring victories over their higher ranked rivals to barge into the quarterfinal round of the 18th Mitsubishi Lancer ITF Junior Circuit at the Rizal Tennis Center.

Dy stayed focused and hung tough in the face of Thai Noppawan Lertcheewakarn’s fightback, completing a hard-earned 6-3, 7-5 victory over her seventh ranked rival while Dandan, ranked 13th in the men’s side, dished out a superb all around game to oust third seed Peng Hsien-Ying of Chinese Taipei, 6-4, 6-3, before an appreciative hometown crowd.

"Unlike yesterday (Wednesday), I didn’t doze off a second, I was just full of concentration in this game," said Dy, who hopes to win this weeklong event and gain ITF ranking points.

Dy, who booted out American Krista Damico, 6-2, 7-5, faces Chang Kai-Chen in the quarters. The third seeded Taiwanese downed Australian No. 16 Sally Peers, 6-4, 6-3.

Dandan, on the other hand, takes on the big-hitting Slovenian Borut Puc, who shrugged off a tentative start to fashion out a 7-5, 6-2 win over Swedish Milos Sekulic.

Against Chen, Dy will enjoy some kind of an edge and momentum as she beat the Taiwanese in straight sets, 7-6, 6-3, in the first round of this same tournament last year.

"I beat her last year, hopefully I could beat her again," said Dy, who thus duplicated her quarterfinal finish last year.

The win, however, didn’t come easy as Dy had to rally from early deficits in both sets before seizing control.

Broken in the third game to trail, 1-2, Dy battled back with her solid baseline game and went on to take five of the next six games to win the opening set.

Dy then rallied from 1-4 down in the second set, breaking her 15-year-old Thai rival in the seventh game to tie the count at 4-all.

Lertcheewakarn held serve in the next game to regain the lead,