ITF U14 seeds hold sway

MANILA, Philippines—The top seeds took their respective places in the boys’ semifinals Thursday, even as three Chinese girls stormed into the quarterfinals of the ITF/ATF Asia 14-under tennis championships at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

Oh Chan-yeong of South Korea, the No. 1 seed, and second pick Wu Ting-lin of Chinese Taipei needed three sets each to overcome their quarterfinal opponents, while third seed Chu Yun-seong of South Korea and No. 4 Zhang Ting Hui of China also advanced with straight-set wins.

Oh came back from a first set debacle to force a deciding set and won when Meng Cing-yang of Chinese Taipei retired after dropping the first game of the third due to the oppressive heat. He will next face Zhang, who advanced against Taiwanese Wang Hsiang-yin, 6-1, 6-0.

Wu downed fifth seed Jurabek Karimov of Uzbekistan, 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 to book a semis match against Chu, who ousted Thai seventh pick Nawakarn Khujan, 6-2, 7-5.

Reaching the girls’ quarterfinals were top seed Li Yuen, Yan Qianting and Cao Siqi.

Li trounced Hong Kong’s Jacinta Yuan Sze Chen, 6-0, 6-1, and will next face Thailand’s Napharat Sawangkaew, who downed Netmie Waduge of Sri Lanka, 6-2, 6-2.

Yan pulled off a 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 upset over second seed Bae Dohee of Korea to move up against Kazakhstan’s Gozal Ainitdinova, who outlasted Taiwanese Chen Tsu-hui, 6-7 (13-11), 6-3, 6-3.

Fifth seed Cao scored an impressive 6-2, 6-2 win over Fil-American Meredith Jones to arrange a semifinal date with India’s Himani Mor, who eliminated Kamila Umarova of Uzbekistan, 6-4, 6-3.