KUCHING: Fourth seed Japan came out on top as the champions of ITF World Tennis Junior Team Competition U14 (Girls) Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying.
They defeated sixth seed South Korea 2-0 in the highly anticipated final tie held at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) Centre on Saturday.
It was an even contest for the most part of the two singles’ matches, where Kokona Ishii first defeated Oh Ji-Yun by 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-0 and later saw Hikari Yamamoto of Japan took down Choo Ye-Sung by 6-2, 7-6(1).
Both South Koreans were visibly worn out at the end of their respective singles’ matches after pulling off two upsets in the earlier rounds by first defeating third seeded Thailand in the final game of the group stage and later toppled first seed Australia in the semi-final on Friday.
The Japanese showed they were a class above the other 15 teams over here, in terms of skills and the level of their fitness.
In the 3rd/4th playoff, first seed Australia took down fifth seed Kazakhstan by an easy 2-0 and will be joining Japan and South Korea into the grand finals which will take place in August in Czech Republic.
The Kazakhs did not look close to pose a threat against the Australians as Koharu Nishikawa of Australia first took down Sabina Shukratova by 6-1, 6-3 and later saw Renee Alame easily outclassed Eva Korysheva by 6-2, 6-1.
Second seed India finished fifth after defeating Hong Kong 2-0, while third seed Thailand have to be satisfied with 7th place finish after taking out eighth seed Uzbekistan 2-0.
Chinese Taipei finished 9th, followed by New Zealand, Singapore and the host Malaysia in 12th.
Iran finished 13th followed by Sri Lanka, with Lebanon and Nepal both relegated as they finished 15th and 16th respectively.
CAP: The Japanese players (front row 4th, 5th and 6th from left and their coach (7th left) posing for a photograph with Malaysian Lawn Tennis Association president Mirzan Mahathir (third left). Photo: Mohd Alif Noni
