Jirat and Patcharapol wins maiden ITF together
National SEA Games player Jirat Navasirisomboon and national World University player Patcharapol Kawin had a good warm-up ahead of their representation for the country as they lifted up their first ITF trophy together in the US$15,000 PTT LTAT Academy ITF Men's Futures 1 in Nonthaburi on Friday
Despite a rain interruption at 7-5 4-0, the two young did not lose track as they came back to finish off Wong Hong Kit and Yeung Pak Long from Hong Kong 7-5 6-0 in the men’s doubles final at the LTAT National Tennis Development Centre.
“Winning my first ITF title makes me confident before the SEA Games. We used to reach the final before in Hua Hin last year but we lost. This is special for me,” said Thai No Jirat one of the 10-member SEA squad to represent the Kingdom later this month in Malaysia.
“Actually we were down a break in the first set as wed went for tough returns and it didn’t work. So we tried to keep the ball in play and the momentum switched to our team from then on,” said Patcharapol who will compete in the World Universiade Games which starts on August 19 in Taiwan.
In the men’s singles semi-finals, seventh seed Lee Kuan-Yi of Taiwan beat his countryman Lu Cheng-Yu 6-4 6-2. He will play third seed Soraa Fukuda of Japan who stemmed the run of American qualifier Elliot Orjin 6-7 (7-9) 6-0 6-4.
On the women’s side, Japanese second seed Haruka Kaji ended the run of Indian qualifier Pranjala Yadlapalli following a 6-3 6-3 win to set up the final against Taiwanese Lee Hua-Chen who ousted Alison Bai of Australia 6-2 6-3.
In the women's doubles final, Tamachan Momkoonthod and Pranjala Yadlapalli of India had to settle at runner-ups iafter losing the doubles final to Indonesian top duo Beatrice Gumulya and Jessy Rompies 0-6 6-7 (5-7).
