JUNIOR tennis players from all over the world have converged on Windhoek where they are competing in the International Tennis Federation J30 u18 Junior Tournament at the Central Tennis Courts in Olympia.
In the boys singles competition, the top-seeded Aryan Jit Singh of Great Britain sailed through to the quarterfinals, but the second and third seeds were both eliminated.
Singh, who has an ITF world junior ranking of 520, comfortably beat Malte Zatterstrom of Sweden 6-3, 6-4 to progress to the quarterfinals where he will take on the unseeded Jan Nowacki of Poland, who beat Pavlos Christoforakis of South Africa 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.
The second-seeded Takura Mhwandagara of Zimbabwe, however, lost 0-6, 7-6, 4-6 to the unseeded Lukas Andersson of Sweden, who will now face the unseeded qualifier Uri Gilon from Israel, who beat the seventh seed, Luke Bosman from South Africa, 6-3, 6-4.
Another qualifier, Victor Tauson from Sweden caused the biggest upset to date when he beat the third seed, Mateya Stanisavljevic of Serbia 6-0, 6-7, 7-5 in the first round on Monday.
Yesterday he beat the unseeded Esi Molefe of Botswana 7-6, 6-2 to progress to the quarterfinals where he will face the fifth-seeded Zhengjie Wu of China, who beat Jan Dabrowski of Poland 6-2, 6-2.
The fourth seed, Maciej Zarebski of Poland beat Ruben Minguez Merchan of Spain 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 to book a quarterfinal place against the unseeded Constantin Neubauer of Austria who beat Seabo Saleshando of Botswana 6-0, 6-0.
Namibia only had two representatives who both lost in the first round.
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Dian Calitz lost 4-6, 6-3, 1-6 to Malte Zatterstrom of Sweden, while Sarel Janse van Rensburg lost 5-7, 2-6 to Maciej Zarebski of Poland.
In the girls singles competition, Lena Rajca of Poland caused the only major upset when she beat the fourth seed, Sofia Carpi of Italy 6-3, 7-6. Rajcawill now meet Anna Maria Payer of Austria who beat Namibia's Leandre Louw 6-1, 6-0.
The top-seeded Eline Bex of Belgium thumped Shana Martin Mao of Tanzania 6-1, 6-1 and will now meet the fifth seed Kakou Narita of Japan, who beat Namibia's Joanivia Bezuidenhout 6-1, 6-3.
The second seed, Carla Botha of South Africa beat Marie Eennaes of Belgium 6-0, 6-3 to book a quarterfinal place against Petra Koszo of Hungary who beat Julia Hillebrand of Germany 6-3, 6-3.
The third seed, Tadiwanashe Mauchi of Zimbabwe beat Veena Nazar of Germany 6-4, 6-1 to book a quarterfinal place against the sixth seed, Giorgia Giacotto of Italy who beat Hannah Claes of Belgium after the latter retired due to injury after losing the first set 6-2.
Namibia's two representatives Leandre Louw and Joanivia Bezuidenhout both won their first round matches before exiting in the second round. Louw beat Simphiwe Malunguza of Zimbabwe 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, while Bezuidenhout beat Julie-Melissa Plava of Belgium 6-1, 6-1.
