Brunei players eliminated in singles first round

ALL six of Brunei's representatives at the 41st Brunei International Tennis Federation (ITF) Junior Circuit failed to clear the first hurdle yesterday.

Brunei's best performance at the National Tennis Centre of the Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex in Berakas came from Mohd Aiman Abdullah, who to stretched his match against Indonesia's Gavin Pranata to three sets before watching his return hit the net at match point.

The only Bruneian with a world ranking in the tournament, Aiman — who is ranked No 1656 in the ITF Juniors — lost 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 to world juniors No 1498 Pranata in a tight match which was decided in a little over two and a quarter hours at Centre Court.

Most of his other compatriots in the boys' singles failed to impress though, with three of them unable to even pick up a point.

Oliver Goy lost to No. 4 Kazuma Kawachi of Japan 6-0, 6-0, Amin Feisal to Malaysia's No. 11 Mohamed Nazim Khan, and Law Vi Yen to Thailand's unseeded Congsup Congar.

Rounding off the field of four players in the boys' singles, Matthew Bukit faired marginally better, losing to China's unseeded Dai Peng 6-1, 6-2.

Meanwhile in the girls' singles competition, Melanie Lau Shu Ping fell 6-3, 6-2 to America's Sydney L. Briner.

Though Pranata was not as fit or as fast as Aiman, the Indonesian managed to stay in the game with his determination and hard work.

Pranata was forced to take a break in the third set when he was leading 4-1 because of cramps, but Aiman did not have the killer instinct to finish his opponent off.

After a slow start in the first set, Aiman shifted gears in the second and slowly started to gain the upper hand with his fitness and stamina, eventually taking the set.

However, Aiman failed to carry over his composed play into the third set and only started to try pen Pranata back after he recovered from his injury.

By that time, it was too late to reverse all the hard work the Indonesian had put in.

"I knew I had to play to my maximum, otherwise I would not have got the result," acknowledged Pranata after the match.

"I was kind of nervous since he (Aiman) had a lot of supporters behind him and I don't have any," added the 15-year-old with a grin.

Groomed to be Brunei's first professional, Aiman knows that it is a learning process.

"My beginning was not really good. I made a lot of errors in the first set and kept rushing," said Aiman, who was unable to explain why exactly he had lost.

The tournament is not over yet for Aiman and the Sultanate's five other players though, with their attention now turning to today's doubles' competition.

Aiman will partner Chinese Taipei's Chen Chun Ying, facing the Thai duo of Woravin Kumthonkittikul and Sirawit Yumuang at 3pm.

Bukit and Amin go up against Turkmenistan's Aleksandr Ernepesov and Jamshid Ilmuradov at 12pm while Goy and Law do battle with Dai and Philippines' Akio Sy at 2pm.

Lau will combine with Malaysia's Hyda Yazmin Mohd Yazip in the girls' against Australia's Astra Sharma and Japan's Yukina Saigo at 3pm.

Boys' singles No 1, Japan's Soichiro Moritani sailed into the second round after thrashing Indonesia's Ryan Kastilani 6-0, 6-0 yesterday.

No 2 James Kong Kwun Ho of Hong Kong beat Japan's Shoki Kasahara 6-3, 6-1 yesterday, while No. 3 Keisuke Watanuki defeated Ukraine's Michail Mykhaylov 6-0, 6-1.

All the seeded players (one to 16) in the girls' singles were given byes into today's second round.

China's No 1 Dong Xiaorong will face Japan's Nagi Hanatani while Sri Lanka's No 2 Amreetha Muttiah goes up against China's Wang Dan Ni.

Russia's No 3 Dinara Khalilova will meet Japan's Akiyo Kawasuji, with all three matches set for around 11am. The Brunei Times