Fil-Am advances in Phinma tennis

Top seed Fil-American Denise Dy defeated wild card Ivy Kristel De Castro, 6-1, 6-3, yesterday to reach the girls’ singles second round of the Phinma-International Tennis Federation (ITF) Juniors Championships at the Ynares Socio-Cultural Sports Center in Pasig City.

Dy, who will see action in the forthcoming SEA Games, will next meet Austrian Natascha Bredl, who struggled past Japanese qualifier Maho Kowase, 6-2, 7-6 (2).

Locals Noelle Conchita, Melissa Rose Orteza and Jessica Marie Agra also won their matches to join the California-based Dy in the next round of this Group 4 event supported by Dunlop balls, Holiday Inn Manila Galleria, Bayer Philippines and Futures Foundation.

The sixth-seeded Zoleta prevailed over Taiwanese Chen Tzou Jou, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, to advance against Japanese Ayumi Yoshida, a 6-0, 6-2 winner over Malaysian Tiara Sulaiman.

Orteza, seeded No. 7, downed Taiwanese Chen Mu Ying, 6-3, 6-4, to forge a second-round duel with Austrian Isabela Reibmayr, who survived Filipino qualifier Noelle Nikki Zoleta, 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (2).

Agra, ranked No. 975 in the ITF Juniors, breezed past qualifier Mara Sotto, 6-1, 6-1. She will face the winner between second seed Austrian Kathrina Negrin and Taiwanese Lai Wen Tzu who were still playing at press time.

Also advancing were No. 3 Australian Lucy Dougherty, No. 4 Taiwanese Lo Chiao-Fan, No. 5 Thai Sophia Mulsap and No. 8 Stephanie Vogt of Liechtenstein.

Dougherty blasted Philippine-based Lebanese Maha Assad, 6-0, 6-0, Lo recovered from a first-set loss to beat local Zhane Quitara, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, Mulsap defeated Taiwanese Shih Chia Chi, 6-2, 6-0, and Vogt downed Taiwanese Miao Yuilynn, 7-5, 7-5.

Other first-round winners were Taiwanese Anjie Lee over local Trudy Gine Amoranto, 6-2, 6-3, Spanish Edilyn Balanga over Guamanian Michelle Pang, 6-4, 6-4, Japanese Mika Morimoto over Taiwanese Juan Ting Fei, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 and Malaysian qualifier Neesha Thirumalaiche over local Catherine Flores, 6-3, 6-2.