Korean, Thai dominate Euro foes

Korean Cho Soong Jae and Thai Noppawan Lertcheewakarn overpowered their respectively European rivals yesterday to complete Asia’s domination of the 19th Mitsubishi Lancer International Juniors Tennis Championships at the Rizal Tennis Center.

The fourth seeded Cho, who stunned top seed Andrew Thomas of Australia, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, in the semis, capped his remarkable title run with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over the big-hitting second pick Borut Puc of Slovenia in the final to capture the men’s crown and 150 circuit points.

The 17-year-old Cho, who ruled a junior’s event in Korea last year, neutralized Puc’s power with his solid baseline game.

“He (Puc) has a strong first serve and a big forehand so my game plan is to get the ball to his backhand because it’s not that strong,” said Cho, who never made past the qualifiers in this event two years ago, through an interpreter.

Lertcheewakarn, on the other hand, bounced back from an opening set loss to repeat over No. 10 Timea Babos of Hungary, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, and bag the girls’ crown in this event backed by Philippine Sports Commission, Wilson Balls and Century Park.

It was the 17-year-old Thai’s second title this year following a victory in Malaysia where she also bested Babos, 7-5, 6-0, in the semis on her way to winning the plum.

Lertcheewakarn said the pair of triumphs would catapult her from the No. 18 ranking in the world to No. 4, giving her bid for the Wimbledon Juniors crown in June a tremendous boost.

“I’m happy with the win, it somehow gave me enough confidence to go after the Wimbledon Juniors title,” said Lertcheewakarn, who reached the second round in Wimbledon last year.

Puc, who ended Francis Casey Alcantara in a three-set semis win, teamed up with Kittiphong Wachiramanowong of Thailand to pull the rug from under the top-ranked pair of Thomas and Mark Verryth of Australia, 7-6 (1), 6-1, in the boys’ doubles final.

Babos likewise settled with a doubles victory after she and compatriot Reka-Luca Jani thumped No. 1 Misaki Doi of Japan and Elena Chernyakova of Russia, 6-7 (4), 6-0, 10-7, last Saturday.