Iglupas Phinma Week 1 champ

PROMISING Filipino netter Khim Iglupas employed her quickness and cunning to down the bigger Wang Xin-yu of China, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, Sunday and capture the girls’ singles title in Week 1 of the PSC-Phinma international juniors tennis championships at Manila Polo Club.

The 17-year-old top scholar of the Philippine Tennis Academy, came back from a sluggish first set to dictate the pace of the next two frames, keeping the ball low enough to get the 5-foot-11 Chinese out of her comfort zone.

“Khim made a variety of shots but the key was to attack the Chinese serve,” said coach Jun Toledo.

Iglupas broke in the first game of the second set, and then held to control the tempo of the match.

Wang, whose dad is the Chinese Fed Cup team coach and whose mother is a basketball player, never got her game going again after that.

The victory gave Iglupas 40 ITF points and her second singles title this year.

In the boys’ final, Japanese Naoki Tajima overpowered Korean Jeong Yeong-seok, 6-4, 6-2, and teamed up with Hiraku Shirashi to turn back Singapore’s Shaheed Alam and Jeong, 3-6, 6-2 (10-1) for the boys’ doubles crown.