Iglupas marches into girls’ quarterfinal in Phinma-PSC netfest

Defending champion Khim Iglupas of Iligan City saved the day for the Philippines when she marched into the girls’ singles quarterfinal of the Phinma-PSC International Juniors Week 1 at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

The 17-year-old national player defeated Japanese Shiori Ito, 6-4, 7-5, in the second round on Thursday to keep the country’s campaign alive in the Grade 4 tournament after Manuel Balce III, Michael Francis Eala and Filipino-Spanish Diego Garcia Dalisay lost their respective matches in the boys division.

Iglupas, who won the ITF Juniors in Hong Kong last January for her first title in seven tournaments this year, will be facing Russian Mariya Polishchuk, who pulled off a 6-3, 6-2 victory over fifth seed Oleksansdra Kalachova of New Zealand.

Joining Iglupas in the next round is third seed Shiho Tsukoda of Japan, who hacked out a 6-2, 6-1 victory over American Skyler Holm, 6-2, 6-1. The world’s No. 412 Japanese will be up against the winner between sixth seed Taiwanese Chang Ting-Pei and wild card Filipino Frances Angelica Santiago.

Meanwhile, five Japanese players earned seats in the boys’ singles quarterfinal of the Grade 4 event sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation. They are No. 2 Seita Watanabe, No. 4 Kazuki Shimitzu, No. 8 Ryoma Matsushita and unseeded players Ryuki Matsuda and Tomoya Ikeda.

Watanabe outclassed Balce, 6-0, 6-0; Shimitzu walked over Eala; Matsushita clobbered Thai qualifier Nutdanai Sincharoenwattana, 6-3, 6-0; Matsuda beat Korean Keonho Shin, 6-2, 6-2; and Ikeda defeated compatriot Fumiya Yoshino, 6-4, 6-0.

The other quarterfinalists were fifth seed Christian Didier Chin of Malaysia, who won over Dalisay, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, and unseeded Digvijay Pratap Singh of India, who ousted No. 6 Japanese Kai Kawano, 7-5, 6-2. PNA