Fil-Am bet ousts Lehnert

MANILA, Philippines - Fil-German Katharina Lehnert completed her victory over Chinese Taipei’s Chen Yi in their rain-delayed quarterfinal match but fell to sixth seed Yasmin Schnack of the US in the semis in the $10,000 PLDT-Smart ITF Women’s Circuit at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center yesterday.

Lehnert put away Chen, 7-6(2), 6-4, at resumption of their Thursday match but struggled against the 22-year-old Schnack, a US-based netter whose mother is a Filipina, and absorbed a 3-6, 5-7 setback.

It was the second straight semis loss for the 16-year-old Lehnert, who had hoped of improving her performance last week in the event backed by ITF Grand Slam Development Fund.

Schnack earlier upended top seeded Gally de Wael of Belgium in a marathon, 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-5 win.

The win set up Schnack against No. 3 Elodie Rogge-Dietrich of France for the title with the latter scoring an emphatic 6-3, 6-3 triumph over No. 2 and Week 1 champion Piia Suomalainen of Finland.