Opening Day of the World Junior Tennis Competition 2009 Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying in Kuching saw fifth-seeded Chinese Taipei establish an unassailable 2-0 lead against the territory before heavy downpours stopped play dramatically in the doubles with the Taiwanese pair at match point leading, 1-6, 6-2, 5-3, advantage TPE.

Complete Results from Day One

First up at No. 2 singles, Jonathan Cho, who is making his WJT debut, went down against opposing counterpart Chen Wei-Jen, 7-5, 6-3, with the match falling roughly 20 minutes shy of the two-hour mark.

At the one spot, Kevin Wong played brilliantly to take the opening set 6-4 before the sweltering conditions caught up with him. In the second set, the trainer was summoned for treatment but nothing from his repertoire of therapeutic remedies yielded any magical fix, as a bout of wooziness continued to hamper his play and threatening ominously to obliterate any quality work he had produced in that opening set.

The HK rep fought on valiantly but it was to no avail in the end, as he lost in three, 6-4, 1-6, 3-6, in close to 150 minutes of actual playing time.

However disappointed, the HK team did not throw in the towel just yet, as Jonathan Cho and Brian Yeung (ITF 1613) took the opening set against Jao Chi-Shan and Chen Wei-Jen before the Taiwanese duo managed to turn it around in the second set.

The boys from HK still would not let go without a shout. It then reached a point where the Chinese Taipei tandem was at match point leading, 1-6, 6-2, 5-3, advantage TPE. As if on cue, that was exactly when the skies opened up to a dreadful and stubborn downpour, which has resulted in the match being postponed until first thing Wednesday morning.

Not so long ago, about fifteen Mays past, the Hong Kong 14U contingent of Jason Sankey, Wayne Wong, and Desmond Chen began the Asia/Oceania Qualifying at the 1994 World Junior Tennis Competition with a thumping 3-0 loss to Lleyton Hewitt's Australian contingent.

Then, with Wayne Wong playing No. 2 singles and Jason Sankey anchoring at the top of the order, Hong Kong proceeded to win all but one of their remaining matches, including against Philippines and Thailand in the round robins, and then China and Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals and semis, to secure their passage to the World Finals in Japan that year.

Against China, in particular, the boys from Hong Kong fell behind bright and early when Wayne Wong was quickly swept in straight sets, 6-0, 6-2, by Xu Ran. At the one spot, Jason Sankey saved the tie by beating Jiang Shan, 6-2, 6-3, before the HK duo combined to win the decisive doubles, 6-2, 6-3.

After blanking Chinese Taipei in the semifinals, with Jason Sankey beating Cheng Wei-Jen and Wayne Wong over Fu Hsiao-Wei, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, the HK boys again came away second best against the Aussies in the final.

Nevertheless, this was the first time an under-14 team from Hong Kong had qualified for the World Finals. Moreover, their 2nd place finish at the Regionals became, and still is today, the benchmark for all subsequent WJT teams.

In the subsequent Finals in Japan, Jason Sankey incredibly lost just once in singles, and that was due to a retirement against Aussie No. 1 Glen Knox with the score tied at 4-4 in the third set, no less.

He later went on to beat American No. 1 David Martin, 7-5, 6-4, during Hong Kong's narrow 2-1 defeat to USA before taking out Japanese No. 1 Ryota Taguchi 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, during the 13th Place Playoff. With Wayne Wong beating opposing number Ikku Kanbara 5-7, 6-2, 6-4, Hong Kong actually beat hosts Japan 2-0 to claim 13th place overall.

David Martin, of course, turned out to be one of Wayne Wong's frequent foes in US collegiate tennis, for the American went on to become Stanford's No. 1 while Wayne Wong took up a similar position up in the Bay Area over at this establishment called Berkeley.

Otherwise, the Martin Sayer spearheaded squad in 2001 was the only other under-14 team from the territory to finish in the top-4 at the Asia/Oceania Qualifying. In doing so, the trio of Martin Sayer, Ronald Chow, and Gilbert Wong gained a berth for the Cesky Telecom World Junior Tennis Finals that was held in the Czech Republic later that summer.

However, no under-14 team from Hong Kong, boy or girls, has managed to return to the World Finals since.

ITF announces Junior Touring Team to Europe (This Week Issue 18 - 5 May 2009)

Results
World Junior Tennis Competition 2009
Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying
Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association
Kuching, Malaysia
May 5-10, 2009

ROUND ROBINS

Day One (May 5)

(5)CHINESE TAIPEI leads HONG KONG   2 – 0
R-1 Chen Wei-Jen (TPE) d. Jonathan Cho (HKG) 7-5 6-3
R-2 Tang Chih-Chun (TPE) d. Kevin Wong (HKG) 4-6 6-1 6-3
R-3 Jao Chi-Shan/Chen Wei-Jen (TPE) leads Jonathan Cho/Brian Yeung (HKG) 1-6 6-2 5-3 -- To Finish

Photo courtesy of www.itftennis.com/juniors