At the World Junior Tennis Asia/Oceania Qualifying held at the East Lake Tennis Club in Shenzhen, the sixth-seeded HK team of Kevin Wong, Kelvin Lam, and Vincent Yau suffered a 3-0 setback against second-seeded Australia in the quarterfinals earlier on Thursday. A win would have sent the territory to the World Finals in Prostejov, Czech Republic, for the first time since 2001.

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First up at the two spot, Kevin Wong went down against an ultra consistent Jack Schipanski in straight sets. At No. 1 singles, Kelvin Lam managed to wrestle the opening set, 6-4, against Luke Saville before losing a tightly contested final two sets, 4-6, 2-6.

Both Saville and Schipanski were integral members of the Australian national team that toured Italy and China last year.

WJT Boys' Team Captain, Michael Lai, reports from Shenzhen: "Kelvin played really well in the first couple of sets. Played very smart and patiently. In the third, Saville took advantage of a couple of opportunities and managed to break through after more than 10 deuces, which turned out to be the winning break. The Aussie number two, Schipanski, was very consistent and Kevin had a tough time breaking him down. In fact, he might be the better of their two singles players right now."

Hong Kong will now play Malaysia in the 5th – 8th Place Playoffs later on Friday.

The top-4 seeded teams all made it to the semifinals, with No. 1 seed India defeating No. 7 Uzbekistan, 2-1, in the quarterfinals on Thursday. Also through are No. 3 seed China and No. 4 seed Korea, as they saw off Chinese Taipei and Malaysia with convincing 3-0 victories respectively.

According to Coach Lai, China and Korea appear to be the strongest two sides in Shenzhen this year.

In the 1st – 4th Place Playoffs, India will take on China, while the second-seeded Aussies will go up against No. 4 seed Korea. By virtue of finishing in the top-4, however, India, Australia, China, and Korea have all secured a spot in the WJT Finals to be held in Prostejov, Czech Republic, from August 4-9.

The other 5th – 8th Place Playoff pits Chinese Taipei against No. 7 seed Uzbekistan.

The only seeded team that failed to progress to the knockout stage was the fifth-seeded Japanese, as they succumbed to both Korea and Chinese Taipei in the round robins.

Earlier...

Against No. 3 seed China in the final round robin match on Wednesday, the boys from Hong Kong played their national counterparts tough at every position, with matches at No. 1 singles and the doubles going to a deciding set. However, that was not enough to stop a very good Chinese side qualifying as Group 2 winners.

WJT Captain, Michael Lai, reports from the East Lake Tennis Club: "China was much stronger than the other teams, even though we lost, our boys still played some good tennis and fought well. Little Kevin saved like seven match points in his singles match in the last game. Physically, Kevin's opponent was a lot taller, has a much bigger serve, but also very consistent from the baseline."

"Kelvin Lam also played some great tennis in the second set, but in the first and third set he was trying to do too much and made more errors than he otherwise would. That said, I was very proud of the way our boys fought till the very end, no question about that," he added.

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
East Lake Tennis Club, Shenzhen, China
14 – 19 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

Day 2 (Apr 15)
(6)HONG KONG defeated NEW ZEALAND   3 – 0
R-1 Kevin Wong (HKG) d. Harry James (NZL) 6-0 6-0
R-2 Kelvin Lam (HKG) d. Tutermoara Durie (NZL) 6-4 6-1
R-3 Kevin Wong/Vincent Yau (HKG) d. Tutermoara Durie/Tom Sizeland (NZL) 6-0 6-0

Day 3 (Apr 16)
(3)CHINA defeated (6)HONG KONG   3 - 0
R-1 Cai Zhao (CHN) d. Kevin Wong (HKG) 6-2 6-4
R-2 Gao Xin (CHN) d. Kelvin Lam (HKG) 6-1 2-6 6-2
R-3 Cai Zhao/Tao Jun-Nan (CHN) d. Kevin Wong/Vincent Yau (HKG) 6-4 4-6 6-4

Day 4 (Apr 17)

Quarterfinals

(2)AUSTRALIA defeated (6)HONG KONG   3 – 0
R-1 Jack Schipanski (AUS) d. Kevin Wong (HKG) 6-1 6-1
R-2 Luke Saville (AUS) d. Kelvin Lam (HKG) 4-6 6-4 6-2
R-3 Jack Schipanski/Jordan Thompson (AUS) d. Kelvin Lam/Vincent Yau (HKG) 6-0 6-0 (walkover)