First seed Kurumi Nara stumbled in semi-final at "Tokyu Harvest Cup Hamanako ITF Womens Circuit" in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka-ken, Japan on Saturday, October 3, 2009. As the locomotive of her three compatriots in the last four round, Nara failed to keep-up her consistency and she was ousted by her 18 years old compatriot and left-handed fourth seed Misaki Doi 2-6, 2-6 as both players for the first time battled each other in pro circuit. It was really an amazing run by Doi who made it into 25K's final back to back. Last week at Makinohara, she bowed out to experienced Shieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei in final.
The two players, Nara and Doi are the next in line after Ayumi Morita, as they used to be Japan's top junior players. Nara's highest junior rank was at ITF 5, while Doi's best junior rank was at ITF 44. At "Pangdam Siliwangi Cup 2006", an ITF Grade 4 tourney in Bandung, Indonesia, Doi was ousted by local "rookie" Grace Sari Ysidora Tobing 6-2, 3-6, 3-6 in semi-final. At that time, it was only Ysidora Tobing's second ITF tourney she had participated in. These two players, Nara and Doi tied at 1-1 in their head to head in junior circuit. In the first meeting, Doi defeated Nara in 2007, then Nara got her revenge in 2008 and both matches at Japan Open Junior Championships (ITF Grade 1) in Nagoya. Nara and Doi partnered in doubles for several times and they were finalists at Junior Wimbledon 2007.
Also advancing into final was local second seed Tomoko Yonemura who had to work hard again same as in the quarterfinal. In the last four round, Yonemura was down a set but then she bounced back to beat her compatriot Natsumi Hamamura 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
In doubles' final, top seed duet Carly Gullickson/Nicole Kriz (USA/Australia) rallied from a set deficit to defeat second seed pair Yayuk Basuki/Hwang I-Hsuan (Indonesia/Chinese Taipei) 4-6, 7-6(2), 10-5. So, Gullickson and Kriz shared the prize money of US $ 1,176.00 while Basuki/Hwang as a pair bagged US $ 686.00
Photo of Misaki Doi is courtesy of daylife.com
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