Alcala bows out of World Jrs

MALVINNE Ann Alcala shocked joint fifth seed Line Kjaersfeldt in straight sets in the third round but bowed to joint No. 9 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, 14-21, 15-21, and missed the women’s singles quarterfinals of the World Juniors Badminton Championships in Chiba, Japan late Thursday.

Alcala, 16 and tipped as a future international star, scored a walkover win over Thilini Hendahewa of Sri Lanka in the opener.  She then rallied from a set down to beat Thai Maetenee Phattanaphitoon, 17-21, 21-11, 21-16, in the second round.

Ranged against Kjaersfeldt, the Filipino ace, who ruled the 19-under division in the recent Swiss International Junior Championships, pounded out a 21-19, 21-16 win to crash into the Last 16.

But she lost steam against Yamaguchi to miss the quarterfinals as Team Philippines, sanctioned by the Philippine Badminton Association, ended its bid.

Joella De Vera and Mark Alcala, Malvinne’s younger brother, hurdled their initial matches with the former beating Uzbek Dilrabo Ahmedova, 21-7, 21-10, and the latter repulsing Sinan Zorlu of Turkey, 13-21, 21-13, 21-19.

But both lost in the second round, with Mark bowing to Pratul Joshi, 16-21, 8-21, and De Vera succumbing to Flore Vandenhoucke, 16-21, 7-21.

In other results, John Kenneth Monterubio bowed to Fabian Roth , 16-21, 19-21; Ros Pedrosa to Jonathan Dolan, 8-21, 12-21; Marina Caculitan to Sun Yu, 2-21, 5-21;  and the mixed doubles team of Gerald Sibayan and Kristel Salatan to Andrew D’Souza and Christin Tsai, 21-19, 17-21, 18-21.