Indonesian, Chinese bets claim big upsets

MANILA, Philippines - Unheralded Tami Grende of Indonesia and Zheng Wushuang of China continued to dish out big games, hacking out a pair of reversals yesterday to barge into the quarterfinals of the 25th Mitsubishi International Junior Tennis Championships at the Rizal Tennis Center.

Grende, ranked only 158th in the world, pulled the rug from under eighth seed Freya Christie of Great Britain, 5-7, 6-0, 6-2, while Zheng, down at 183rd in world ranking, stunned No. 12 Plobrung Plipuech of Thailand, 6-2, 7-6(5), in the girls’ side of the week-long tournament.

Grende earlier eliminated No. 10 Lizette  Cabrera of Australia, 6-2, 6-3, while Zheng bundled out No. 7 Olivia Tjandramulia, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.

Grende will next face the winner between No. 4 You Xiaodi of China and Raveena Kingsley of the United States while Zheng will take on the victor between No. 2 Greetje Minnen of Belgium and No. 14 Gloria Liang of Canada. Both matches are being played at presstime.

Upsets also continued to mar the boys’ side with unseeded Rhett Purcell surprising No. 5 Chung Yunseong, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, after the 134th-ranked player trounced No. 11 Alexander Klintcharov of New Zealand, 6-0, 6-2, to advance to the Last 8 phase.

He squares off with fellow giant-slayer Mandresy Rakotomala of France in the quarters.

Rakotomala, who shocked No. 2 Ken Oishi of Japan, 6-4, 6-1, last Wednesday, stayed in the title hunt by downing Jack Van Slyke of Canada, 6-3, 7-6 (3).

Top seed Harry Bourchier of Australia played true to form and waylaid No. 14 Teeradon Tortrakul of Thailand, 6-2, 7-5, to seal a quarters duel with No. 7 Oh Chan Yeong of Korea, who repulsed Shamal Dissanayake of Sri Lanka, 7-5, 6-4.

Also making it through the quarters are No. 4 Kang Ku Keon of Korea, No. 6 Ly Nam Hoang of Vietnam, No. 8 Bogda Bobrov of Russia and No. 3 Petar Conkic of Serbia.

Kang bested Sameer Kumar of the US, 6-1, 6-2; Ly slammed No. 9 Zheng Weiqiang of China, 6-3, 6-1; Bobrov walloped Lee Kuan Yi of Chinese Taipei, 6-2, 6-2; and Conkic bashed No. 15 Lin Liang Yu Richard of Taipei, 6-3, 6-3.