Zheng battles through

Fourth-seeded Weiqiang Zheng of China was stretched to three sets by Hong Kong’s Anthony Jackie Tang before eking out a 6-2, 2-5, 6-4 victory in the boys’ singles first round of Asian Closed Junior Championships at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association  complex on Tuesday. 

In the five boys’ singles and two girls matches scheduled for the day, top seed Duck Hee Lee of Korea wasted little time in brushing aside Joshua Liu of Singapore 6-0, 6-1 to move into the boys’ singles second round. He now plays Hei Yin Andrew Li of Hong Kong.

India’s seventh-seeded Sumit Nagal, too, broke little sweat during his 6-2, 6-3 victory over Japan’s Shoma Kato. Sumit now plays Siu Chuen Lam of Hong Kong, who showed the door to India’s Shrey Gupta 6-1, 6-3.

Sharmal Dissanayake of Sri Lanka advanced to the second round following a comfortable 6-1, 6-3 victory over G Venkata Paramatmuni of India.

In the girls’ singles, wildcard Devanshi G Bhimjiyani beat Japan’s Momoka Yoshida 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. Devanshi now plays compatriot Simran Kaur Sethi, who had taken out seventh-seeded Yijia Shao of China on Monday. However, it was end of road for India’s Karman Kaur Thandi, who went down 1-6, 1-6 to Hong Kong’s Yau Ng.

Results (first round): Boys: 7-Sumit Nagal (Ind) bt Shoma Kato (Jpn) 6-2, 6-3; 1-Duck Hee Lee (Kor) bt Joshua Liu (Sin) 6-0, 6-1; 4-Weiqiang Zheng (Chn) bt Anthony Jackie Tang (Hkg) 6-2, 2-6, 6-4; Siu Chuen Lam (Hkg) bt Shrey Gupta (Ind) 6-1, 6-3; Sharmal Dissanayake (Sri Lanka) bt G Venkata Paramatmuni (Ind) 6-1, 6-3.
Girls: Kwan Yau Ng (Hkg) bt Karman Kaur Thandi (Ind) 6-1, 6-1; Devanshi G Bhimjiyani (Ind) bt Momoka Yoshida 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.