Nguyen, Rudas hurdle foes in Phinma jr opener

MANILA, Philippines - Tamitha Nguyen and Marinel Rudas hurdled their respective rivals in contrasting fashions at the start of the main draw of the Phinma International Junior Tennis Week 1 at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center yesterday.

Nguyen scrambled past a tough Tha Varanya Wongteanchai, pulling off a gripping 7-5, 7-6 victory to advance to the next round while Rudas dominated Yuko Kimura, 6-2, 6-2, in the other contest.

The other local bets, however, fell by the wayside with Marianne de Guzman bowing to Aldia Sutjiadi of Indonesia, 1-6, 2-6, and Bea Ysabel Ebriega succumbing to Tanaporn Thongsing of Thailand, 0-6, 0-6.

Joshua Cano also failed to score a single point in a 0-6, 0-6 loss to Yu Hsiang Chiu of Chinese Taipei in the boys’ side.

Other opening day winners in the girls division were Sofia Dmitrieva of Russia, who defeated Amit Gavrielli of Israel, 7-5, 6-2, and Sanae Ota of Japan, who trounced Yulia Sudnikova of Russia, 6-3, 6-0.