Iglupas raps Miyamoto, reaches Phinma semis

MANILA, Philippines - Top seed Khim Iglupas sustained her fierce form and rolled past Japanese Ayumi Miyamoto, 6-4, 6-1, but compatriot Maia Balce fell by the wayside in the quarterfinal round of the Phinma-PSC International Juniors Tennis Championships – Week 1 at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center yesterday.

The 16-year-old Iglupas sized up Miyamoto in the opening set then broke her once before stamping her class in the next to annex another straight-set romp for a duel with No. 8 Watsachol Sawasdee of Thailand for a berth in the finals of the Grade 4 ITF (International Tennis Federation) 18-Under category event sponsored by the Phinma Group of Companies, Philippine Sports Commission and Mariposa Foundation.

The Thai ace smothered another Japanese bet Ramu Ueda, 6-3, 6-3, but will have to dig deep into her arsenal of shots to topple the fancied Iligan City native, a mainstay of the Philippine Tennis Academy.

But while Iglupas breezed through the semis, Balce found the going tough against No. 7 Satoko Sueno of Japan, who hacked out a 6-3, 7-6(2) win in the lower half of the 32-player girls’ singles draw of the week-long tournament sanctioned by the Philippine Tennis Association with Dunlop Fort All Court as the official ball.

Sueno will face Indonesian Rifanty Kahfiani, who overpowered Taiwan’s Yuelin Chen, 6-0, 6-1, in the tournament backed by PSC for the free use of RMTC and Asiatraders Corp for the Dunlop balls.

In boys’ play, Taiwan’s Chung Han Tsai upended No. 8 Phongsapak Kerdlaphee of Thailand, 6-3, 0-6, 6-2, to arrange a semis duel with Japan’s No. 5 Yunosuke Tanaka, who stunned third seed Udayan Bhakar of India, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1, while Rio Noguchi, also of Japan, wore down Thai Charles Roberts, 7-5, 7-5, to clinch the third semis seat.

Bhakar and Kerdlaphee booted out the last Filipino hopefuls late Thursday with the former beating Joshua Cano, 6-2, 6-2, and the latter eking out a 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 win over Stefan Suarez.

Meanwhile, the qualifiers for the Week 2 championship will be held Nov. 24-25 with the tournament proper set Nov. 26-30, according to tournament director Loida Mallare with Wannawit Srirasa of Thailand as the event’s ITF supervisor/referee.