 Photographer: None / Not Applicable
Date: 14 Oct 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 30 Dec 2003 |  Photographer: Aquiles Duarte
Date: 05 Jan 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 08 Feb 2005 |  Photographer: None / Not Applicable
Date: 15 Oct 2004 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 30 Dec 2003 |
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| 18 Apr 2005 - ITF - Will Fletcher | |
| Clean Sweep for Champions in Seoul |
Seoul was the focus of junior tennis in Asia last week as it played host to the 2005 Asian Closed Junior Championships. India’s Sanam Singh, who went into the tournament at no. 81 in the ITF Junior Combined rankings, put recent mediocre results behind him to go all the way at the city’s Olympic Tennis site.
In a repeat of last year’s quarterfinal at this Grade B1 event Singh met the second seed from Hong Kong, Martin Sayer, in the last eight. However, whereas the 17-year-old from Chandigargh was unceremoniously disposed of in Taiwan in 2004, this year he repaid the favour coolly moving into the last four after a proficient 64 62 performance.
His semifinal opponent was compatriot Vivek Shokeen who went into this game with a definite psychological edge after defeating Singh at the start of February at an ITF Junior event in Delhi on his way to claiming that title. The second seed has been playing very consistently this year and as a result entered this tournament ranked 26 in the world. This makes Singh’s victory all the more impressive as he came from a set down to ultimately triumph quite comfortably 46 62 61 and advance to the final.
After enjoying a trouble-free ride to the final, Kuwait’s Abdullah Magdas was poised to dispatch his final opponent and continue his fine current run of results. Two weeks previously Magdas triumphed at the Grade 1 Mitsubishi-Lancer in Malaysia earning him top seed status in Seoul. However, he was not prepared for the challenge of Singh and had to be content with runner up after the Indian’s solid performance sealed the match in straight sets 64 62.
The singles champion also carried his form into the doubles competition where he and fellow countryman Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan defeated Indonesia’s Elbert Sie and Japan’s Shuhei Uzawa 63 62 in the final. This capped off a very successful tournament for Singh who will be pleased, not only with his significant rise in the rankings (he has leapfrogged 51 places to 30 in the ITF Junior rankings), but also with the manner in which he won the singles competition with consecutive victories over the top three seeds who were all ranked in the top 30 in the world before the event began.
There were no surprises to see the favourite Yung-Jan Chan (TPE) lift the girls’ singles trophy as her consistent form over the last two years has seen her in or around the top ten girls in the world since the start of 2004. Perhaps the only surprise was that the other finalist was not her compatriot and rival Wen-Hsin Hsu who was outplayed by Kazakhstan’s Amina Rakhim in the quarterfinals. The 16-year-old fifth seed went on to reach the final after defeating local hope Seul-Ki Chin (KOR) 62 61 in the last four and, although she struggled to mount a formidable challenge against Chan, she will be pleased to have recorded her best result in her first Grade B1 event.
Just like Sanam Singh in the boys’ competition, Chan continued her success in the girls’ doubles. She teamed up with compatriot I-Hsuan Hwang (TPE) and they proved too good for Rakhim and partner Hsu as they easily won the final 62 62.
For full results of the Asian Closed Junior Championships check the ITF juniors webpage…
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