Top Seed Chen Ti On Fire

Chen who reached No 184 last year used his superior baseline game to tame the 579 th ranked opponent in 71 minutes for his fourth semi-final of the year. The 32-year-old player from Keelung has reached three finals, Korea Futures 4, Uzbekistan Futures 4, where he won the title, and Uzbekistan Futures 3, this year.

Chen lines up today’s semi-final clash against Indian world no 547 and eighth seed N. Srinam Balaji who beat Thales Turini of Brazil 6-2 4-6 6-1.  Chen is leading their head-to-head record at 2-0 with both wins coming from a Futures in Kazakhstan and a Challenger in China in 2014.

In the other quarter-finals, Thai young gun Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul was affected by exhaustion as he easily went down to Chinese Sun Fajing 1-6 0-6 in only 59 minutes.

‘’I have to give credits to my opponent for playing so well while I made so many mistakes. I was a bit tired from playing three sets yesterday. Now I have to focus on next week’s Challenger in Bangkok where I hope to enter with this level of confidence,” said the 21-year-old Wishya who beat the Chinese in a Futures in Anning earlier this year.

Sun will next take on South Korean Chung Yunseong who upset third seeded Antoine Escoffier of France 6-4 6-3 and Indian

In the doubles semi-finals, top seed Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana were knocked out by Chinese Gao Xin and former junior world No 3 Chung Yunseong  of South Korea 7-6 (9-7) 6-7 (2-7) 10-7 in the grueling fight that last for two hours.

“After the Olympics, we didn’t practice at all. We just started picking up the racquets in this tournament. But we managed to play three matches here like we expected,” said Sonchat.

The other local pair eliminated from the event was Kittipong Wachiramanowong and Wishaya who went down to third seed Chen Ti of Taiwan and John Paul Fruttero of the US 6-4 6-2.