Canadian, US bet seal semifinal duel

MANILA, Philippines - Gloria Liang of Canada and Raveen Kingsley of the United States bundled out unheralded Tami Grende of Indonesia, 6-4, 6-4, and Zheng Wushuang of China, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, respectively, to restore order in the upset-marred 25th Mitsubishi International Junior Championships at the Rizal Tennis Center yesterday.

The victories thus set up Liang and Kingsley, ranked 131st and 134th in the International Tennis Federation rankings and seeded 14th and 15th in this weeklong tournament, respectively, for a semifinal duel today.

Grende, ranked 158th, earlier upset No. 10 Lizette Cabrera of Australia and No. 8 Freya Christie of Great Britain while Zheng, ranked 183rd, ousted No. 7 Olivia Tjandramulla of Australia and No. 12 Plobrung Plipuech of Thailand, in the second and third rounds.

Top seed Katie Boultier of Great Britain flirted with disaster but pulled through in the end, nipping upset-conscious No. 9 Ye Qui Yu of China, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5.

It was the world No. 10 Boultier’s third match that went the distance. She scraped past Rosie Cheng of New Zealand, 6-3, 1-6, 6-0, in the second round then outlasted No. 13 Maddison Inglis of Australia, 7-5, 0-6, 6-4, in the next.

Boultier goes for a berth in the finals against third pick Kimberly Birrell of Australia, who wore down No. 5 Katrine Steffensen of the US, 6-3, 6-1.

Steffensen came off a draining 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) win over No. 11 Morgane Michiels of Belgium the day before although Birrell came off a tough three-setter against No. 16 Marie Alexandre Leduc of Canada, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

In boys’ action, Rhett Purcell of Great Britain eked out a pulsating 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4) win over Mandresy Rakotomalala of France in a duel of unfancied players that lasted two and a half hours.

Purcell, who trounced No. 11 Alexander Klintcharov of New Zealand, 6-0, 6-2, and No. 5 Chung Yunseng of South Korea, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. thus moved into the semis against No. 8 Bogdan Bobrov of Russia, a 7-6 (3), 6-3 winner over No. 3 Petar Conkic of Serbia.

No. 1 Harry Bourchier of Australia likewise had to fend off a gritty No. 7 Oh Chan Yeong of South Korea, 6-1, 2-6, 6-1 to arrange a semis duel with No. 4 Kang Ku Keon also of South Korea, who trounced No. 6 Ly Nam Hoang of Vietnam, 6-3, 6-3.