The sixth-seeded Hong Kong WJT Boys' contingent of Kelvin Lam, Kevin Wong, and Vincent Yau thoroughly dominated the Philippines 3-0 on opening day of the 2008 World Jr Tennis Asia/Oceania Qualifying event held this year at the East Lake Tennis Club in Shenzhen. The girls' competition will take place the following week at the same venue from April 21-26.

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WJT Boys' Team Captain, Michael Lai, who had to make a dash up north after securing victory for the Hong Kong Davis Cup team on Sunday afternoon, reports from Shenzhen: "We won our first Group 2 round robin match against the Philippines 3-0 on Monday. Our boys did a great job, showing tremendous energy and fighting spirit out there, which gave their opponents little chance. All of them were pretty nervous in the beginning, but they handled the pressure and closed it out very well."

First up at No. 2 singles, Kevin Wong gave up just two games against his opposite number, Juan Paolo Cansino, winning their contest, 6-2, 6-0. Then at the one spot, Kelvin Lam, who recently placed third overall at the ITF 14U Asian Junior Championships, yielded a mere one game against opposing number one, Arjohn Dela Cruz, 6-1, 6-0, before teaming up with Vincent Yau to register a 6-1, 6-0 win the doubles against Enrique Gabriel Ferrer and Juan Paolo Casino.

The six-seeded Hong Kong team faces the unseeded New Zealanders on Tuesday. A win should guarantee the territory at least second place in the group, which is good enough to qualify them for the quarterfinals/knockout stage. HK is to face No. 3 seed China in the final round robin match.

A total of fifteen boys team are competing for the region's four available spots to the World Junior Tennis Finals, to be held in Prostejov, Czech Republic, from August 4-9. The groupings in Shenzhen are as follows:

Group 1	(1)India	Malaysia	Tajikistan
Group 2	(3)China	(6)Hong Kong	New Zealand	Philippines
Group 3	(4)Korea	(5)Japan	Chinese Taipei	Indonesia
Group 4	(2)Australia	(7)Uzbekistan	Kazakhstan	Thailand

The girls' event in the Asia/Oceania Zone Qualifying will take place from April 21 – 26, also at the East Lake Tennis Club in Shenzhen. Representing Hong Kong will be Katherine Ip, Carmen Lai, and Lucy Tang. Katherine Ip currently ranks No. 1 in both the G14 and G16 age groups locally.

The World Junior Tennis Competition is the ITF Team Championships for Boy and Girls of 14 & Under. Notable players who have competed in the WJT over the years included Tommy Haas, Xavier Malisse, Lleyton Hewitt, Guillermo Coria, David Nalbandian, Rafael Nadal, Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, Amelie Mauresmo, Lina Krasnoroutskaya, Daniela Hantuchova.

While no girls' team from the territory had ever qualified for the WJT Finals, two previous boys' teams have managed to place fourth or better at the Regionals to progress to the World Finals.

The first time a boys' team from Hong Kong achieved such feat was in 1994 when the two-pronged attack of Jason Sankey and Wayne Wong secured the territory's first-ever qualification to the World Finals in this competition by placing second behind only Lleyton Hewitt's Australia in the Asia/Oceania qualifying.

In the subsequent World Finals held at the Yamanakako Tennis Club in Japan that year, the HK duo took to the courts with the likes of Belgium's Xavier Malisse and Hewitt for a second time round after having drawn to face the Aussies in both the regional qualifiers and in the finals that year.

The last time a Hong Kong team qualified for the World Junior Tennis Finals was in 2001 when Martin Sayer spearheaded a Boys' 14U contingent comprising Ronald Chow and Brian Wong to finish third at the Asia/Oceania Qualifying to progress to the Cesky Telecom WJT Finals in the Czech Republic.

Martin managed to go undefeated in singles throughout the 2001 Asia/Oceania Qualifying in Sri Lanka and led the team to victories over seeded opponents New Zealand, Australia and China, while losing only in the semifinals to Kim Sun-Yong's Korean team that year. Kim Sun-Yong, of course, was to later become world number one on January 3, 2005.

Results
World Junior Tennis Asia/Oceania Qualifying
Yuetong (East Lake) Tennis Club, Shenzhen, China
14 – 27 April 2008

Group 2 (Round Robins)

Day 1 (Apr 14)
(6)HONG KONG defeated PHILIPPINES   3 – 0
R-1 Kevin Wong (HKG) d. Juan Paolo Cansino (PHI) 6-2 6-0
R-2 Kelvin Lam (HKG) d. Arjohn Dela Cruz (PHI) 6-1 6-0
R-3 Kelvin Lam/Vincent Yau (HKG) d. Enrique Gabriel Ferrer/Juan Paolo Casino (PHI) 6-1 6-0