Arevalo crushes Taiwanese, enters int’l junior tennis finals

Top seed Filipino Czarina Mae Arevalo rallied past Taiwanese Tai Yu-Lin, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3, yesterday to reach the girls’ singles finals of the Enervon Tablet-Futures Foundation International Juniors Tennis Championships at the Ynares Socio-Cultural Sports Center in Pasig City.

Arevalo, currently No. 173 in the ITF juniors rankings, will shoot for the title at 9 a.m. today against second seed and ITF juniors No. 275 Hwang I-Hsuan of Chinese Taipei, who demolished Korean Kim Hee-Ju, 6-0, 6-0.

Third seed Lee Seong-Woo and fourth seed Lim Hyung-Joon demolished separate rivals to forge an all-Korean boys’ singles finals in this event sponsored by Philam Life Foundation, The Phinma Group, adidas Philippines, Prince rackets, Toby’s Sports, Viva Mineral Water, Nassau balls, Coke Light, Powerade and The STAR.

Lim defeated Taiwanese Lin Wei-ting, 6-0, 6-1, while Lee blasted Filipino Michael Basco, 6-2, 6-2.

In the girls’ doubles division, local pair Ivy Kristhel de Castro and Noelle Conchita Zoleta pulled off a 6-4, 6-3 upset win over second seeds Alyssa Ann Labay of the Philippines and Natalie Solevski of Australia to advance to the finals against the No. 1 Taiwanese pair of Hwang I-Hsuan and Tai Yu-Lin, who beat third seeds Denise Dy of the United States and Gayatri Krishnan of India, 7-5, 6-1.

Second seeds Ralph Kevin Barte and Kyle Joshua Dandan survived fourth seeds Irwin de Guzman of the Philippines and Ryoken Matsui of Japan, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, to advance in the boys’ doubles finals against third seeds Lim Hyung-Joon and Lee Seong-Woo of Korea, 6-0, 6-2 winners over top seeds Lin Wei-Ting and Yu Yen-Sheng of Chinese Taipei.