Young aces rising
Nio Tria smashes a return. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Filipino young aces Nio Tria and Alex Eala displayed impressive form as they cruised to the quarterfinals of the Phinma-PSC International Junior Tennis Championships Week 2 Thursday at Manila Polo Club.
On the day the local campaign was decimated by foreign competitors, Tria blasted Marvin Mang Hin Lee of Hong Kong, 6-1, 6-1, before the 13-year-old Eala crushed seventh seed Sim Chae-hyun of South Korea, 6-1, 6-2.
Tria, a member of the national juniors team, will try to make the semifinals when he goes up against fourth seed Kokoro Isomura of Japan, who downed Filipino Vince EJ Tugade, 6-0, 6-0.
A Rafael Nadal Academy scholar and last week’s champion, Eala will advance against the winner between second seed Saki Oyama of Japan and Tian Fangran of China, who were still locked in battle.
Local boys Justin Suarez and Marcus del Rosario, however, faltered in the second round, falling victims to the rush of foreign talent in the tournament.
Suarez bowed to sixth seed Lo Yi-jui of Chinese Taipei, 6-3, 7-5, while Del Rosario fell to another Taiwanese Lin Nan-hsun, 7-5, 6-3.
Lin will take on Zsombor Velcz of Hungary, who eliminated Chen Kuan-yu of Chinese Taipei. Second seed Tom Evans of Australia also marched to the next round, beating Thai Patom Hanchaikul, 6-1, 6-3.
