Thirteen-year-old Albert Lim Jr. barreled his way to the quarterfinals along with Fil-British Meredith Jones yesterday in the Ajay Pathak Memorial Cup/ITF Asia 14-and-under Development Championships at Rizal Memorial Tennis Courts.
Lim, winner of the Phinma junior boys championship last December, whipped Jiang Xingsheng of China, 6-1, 6-0, and will face the winner of the match pitting Lam Ching of Hong Kong and Charles Roberts of Thailand which was being played at presstime.
Jones also was impressive in a 6-2, 6-1 rout of Hong Kong’s Lam Wing Kiu in the Final 8 of the girls’ singles to advance against Korea’s Jang Eunse, who escaped with a 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 decision over China’s Youmi Zhuoma.
Ranked 407th in the world, Lim and the 14-year-old Jones are the only Filipino bets in the running in the two-week event held in memory of Philippine Tennis Association vice president Ajay Pathak who died last year.
Pathak, who was also an official of the Asian Tennis Federation, initiated the 14-under series to sustain the sport’s growth from the age-group to the junior level. It is sponsored by the ITF Grand Slam Development Fund and the Philippine Tennis Academy and supported by supported by the Philippine Sports Commission,
Technifibre Balls, Wilkins, Mariposa Foundation and Trans-Asia Corp.
Also advancing were top seed China’s Tang YuTong, who ousted Korea’s Park Ju-hul, 6-0, 6-2, and third-ranked Yinglak Jittakoat, who downed Kygyztan’s Eliza Askarova, 6-4, 6-4. Tang will next face Uzbek Komo Umarova who survived Thailand’s Pichayatida Jandaeng, 7-6 (7-2), 2-6, 7-5, while Yinglak moved up against
India’s Humani Mor, who booted out Korea’s Park Mi-jeong, 6-4,
7-5.
Sixth seed Ren JiaQi of China ripped Sri Lanka’s Medhira Samarasinghe, 6-3, 6-0, to set a quarterfinal duel against second seed Mihika Yadav of India who crushed Priyachanok Sukkanha of Thailand, 6-3, 6-2 in women’s play.
Thai Vorachon Rachpuangchon routed Vietnamese Nguyen Dac Tien, 6-2,
6-1, while China’s Wu Yibing trounced India’s Vashist Vinod, 6-4, 6-0,
to join Lim in the next round.