Top seeds Hsieh and Gumulya crashed out

Top seeds in boys’ singles and girls’ singles, Hsieh Cheng-Peng of Chinese Taipei and numero uno local player, Beatrice Gumulya crashed out in the quarter-final today. Hsieh, younger brother of Hsieh Su-Wei, was forced to fight hard against Canadian Zachary White. He barely won the opening set 6-4, but then White stormed back to secure the two remaining sets 6-3, 6-1. This Canadian boy will be the only unseeded player to appear in the semi-finals.

The other semi-finalists are second seed Huang Liang-Chi from Chinese Taipei, third seed Dominik Schulz of Germany, and fourth seed Maximilian Neuchrist from Austria. Huang had an easy match and won over Egyptian Ahmed Al Bitar 6-1, 6-2. German Schulz came from behind to beat seventh seed Sudanwa Sitaram from India 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-3. While Austrian Neuchrist tarnished the last local hope, eighth seed David Agung Susanto as he won straight sets, 6-4, 6-1.

No accident to witness the exit of Beatrice Gumulya, younger sister of Sandy Gumulya, as she had the same defeat as Hsieh. The curse for younger siblings of active women players really came true. With such different situation, younger Gumulya looked under pressure as she would have been expected by her boss or “Big Mama”, coaches as well as parents to take the title here. Meanwhile, eighth seed Juan Ting-Fei of Chinese Taipei played quite well complemented with sound strategy in gunning down last year runner-up, Gumulya. Juan did not have much trouble to defeat Gumulya 6-2, 6-1.

Juan’s recent good performance was at “Loy Yang Power Traralgon International”, an ITF Grade 1 tourney in Victoria, Australia last January when she finished in round 16. Last season Juan grabbed two titles from ITF Grade 4 tournaments in Brunei and her home country. In semi-final, Juan will face a kind of surprise semifinalist, local unseeded player Laili Rahmawati Ulfa. Rahmawati Ulfa did not have to appear on the court as her fifth seed opponent, Kyra Shroff of India gave her walk over win due to her illness. For both Juan and Rahmawati Ulfa, it is their first ever last four round in ITF Grade 2 tourney. In terms of head to head, Juan still leads 1-0 over Rahmawati Ulfa. In their clash at ITF Grade 4 tourney in Brunei a year ago, Juan just barely defeated Wonogiri country girl 7-5, 7-6(4).

The sole qualifier left in the main draw and “Chinese Great Wall” Zheng Sai Sai continued her campaign by ousting experienced fourth seed Thai Natchanok Saenyaukhot 6-3, 7-5. In Zheng’s biggest achievement ever in the last four of ITF Grade 2 tourney, she will challenge talented New Zealander and sixth seed Katherine Westbury. A Thai descendant, Westbury outclassed Indian Ashvarya Shrivastava 6-2, 6-4.

Boys’ Doubles – Quarter-final results:

(1) Maximilian Neuchrist/Dominik Schulz AUT/GER d Justin Chak-T To/Chanon Varapongsittikul HKG/THA 6-2, 6-2
(4) Samuel Barry/Zachary White IRL/CAN d Sai Kartik Nakireddi/Naveen Saai IND/IND 6-0, 6-1
(3) Huang Liang-Chi/Vaidik Munshaw TPE/IND d Michael Tjuatjadarma/Indra Wijaya INA/INA 6-1, 6-3
(2) Hsieh Cheng-Peng/David Agung Susanto TPE/INA d Venkat Iyer/Sudanwa Sitaram 0-1 ret

Girls' Doubles - Quarter-final results:

(1) Beatrice Gumulya/Kanyapat Narattana INA/THA d Hsieh Shu-Ying/Juan Ting-Fei TPE/TPE 6-2, 6-3
(4) Prang Pantusart/Kobkanok Upapong THA/THA d Zhang Yuxuan/Zheng Sai Sai CHN/CHN 6-4, 6-3
Dong Xiaorong/Yang Zhaoxuan CHN/CHN d (3) Laili Rahmawati Ulfa/Grace Sari Ysidora INA/INA 7-5, 6-4
(2) Denisa Allertova/Monika Tumova CZE/CZE d Jade Frampton/Nadia Frederika USA/INA 6-1, 6-4