Fil-German bows out in ITF semis

MANILA—American Yasmin Schnack ended the hometown crowd’s fascination with Katharina Lehnert when she ousted the Fil-German, 6-3, 7-5, yesterday to reach the finals of the PLDT-Smart ITF women’s tennis circuit week 2. The weather finally cooperated and the matches went as scheduled, but the 22-year-old American, the sixth seed,  spoiled everything by taking the thrilling one-hour,  53-minute battle at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center. The 16-year-old Lehnert, who has taken temporary residence in a condominium in front of the sports complex, had outlasted fifth seed Chen Yi of Chinese Taipei earlier in the day in the continuation of their quarterfinal match halted by rains Thursday. Schnack, who was champion and runner-up in a similar $10,000 ITF twin event in Mexico last month, advanced against third seed Elodie Rogge-Dietrich of France, who stopped last week’s champion Piia Suomalainen, 6-3, 6-3, in the other semifinal. The big-serving Schnack started off strong by taking the first three games of the first set, before Lehnert fought back to close in at 3-2.