MANILA — Arthur Craig Pantino and Michael Francis Eala won their respective first-round matches in the 30th Chief Minister’s Cup at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association Centre in Malaysia.
According to the ITF Juniors website on Wednesday, Pantino defeated Indonesian Muhammad Althaf Dhaifullah, 7-6 (6), 7-5, while Eala prevailed over Swedish qualifier Mans Stapel, 6-2, 6-0 in the boys’ single category.
Pantino, who hails from Cebu, will next face third seed Digvijay Pratap Singh, while Eala will be up against No. 11 South African Gerhardt Marius Becker.
Singh and Becker both drew first-round byes along with the tournament’s other seeded players.
In the doubles category, Pantino and his Chinese partner, Lu Pengyu, downed Norwegian Herman Hoeyeraal and Swedish Rikard Raad, 6-2, 7-5, in the first round.
Pantino and Yu will next meet fourth seeds Chinese tandem Yu Bingyu and Zhou Xinmu.
Eala and Malaysian Shairul Shahril Mohd Adam Das, however, failed to advance to the next round after losing to Japanese Hiroki Fujita and Malaysian Daniel Ahmad Farid, 3-6, 1-6.
Meanwhile, Rafaella Jean Villanueva bowed to Taiwanese Ssu-Yi Wu, 0-6, 1-6, in the first round of the girls’ singles category.
Villanueva and Wu have teamed up in the doubles category and are scheduled to play against fifth seeds Ivana Popovic and Megan Smith of Australia in the next round.
The 30th Chief Minister’s Cup is part of the International Tennis Fderation (ITF) Juniors Circuit. (PNA)
