On a day when the Top-2 seeded teams failed to make the semifinals, Hong Kong won its second straight match at the World Junior Tennis Asia/Oceania Qualifying by blanking Singapore 3-0 to advance to the 9th-12th Place Playoffs against the Philippines on Saturday.

► Results after Day Four

After beating Sri Lanka in the final group match on Thursday handily, Hong Kong duplicated that effort on Friday against Singapore without conceding a set for the second day running.

First out at No. 2 singles, Brian Yeung defeated Rohan Kamdar, 6-2, 6-1, in exactly one hour of court time, followed by Kevin Wong's equally proficient, 6-1, 6-3 victory over Singaporean No. 1 Sean Lee. Jonathan Cho then teamed up with Brian Yeung for a 6-1, 6-1 win against Sean Lee and Tan Jun Sing in the doubles to complete the whitewash.

Next up for the boys from Hong Kong will be a face-off with the Philippines, who beat Malaysia 2-1 earlier yesterday. The winner of the HKG-PHI contest will move into the 9th-10th Place Playoff against either New Zealand or Indonesia.

The losing teams, on the other hand, will face each other in the 11th-12th Place Playoff to determine final positions.

Earlier on Friday, top-seeded Thailand succumbed to the heroics of Uzbek number one, Temur Ismailov, who first made a match-saving win against Thailand's No. 1, Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul, in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6(2), that took almost two hours to complete.

Then he combined with Djamal Mokhamed Akhmed to come from a set down to beat Krittin Koaykul and Parl Rungseeborirak, 3-6, 6-2, 8-6, to win the deciding doubles in another 160 minutes of play to secure his team's 2-1 quarterfinal win.

Number six seed Uzbekistan joins No. 3 Australia, No. 4 Japan, and No. 5 Chinese Taipei in the semifinals, which also guaranteed their places in the World Finals later this year in the Czech Republic.

Like his Thai counterpart, Korean No. 1 Jeong In-Kyo could not close the deal with a 1-0 lead in hand, as he went down in straight sets against Taiwan's Tang Chih-Chun, 6-3, 6-3. Tang Chih-Chun then partnered Jao Chi-Shan to beat Cho Min-Guk and Chung Hyeon, 6-1, 6-4, to secure the 2-1 win for Chinese Taipei that also nets them a passage to the World Finals.

It must be said that earlier in the round robins, Team HK's No. 1 singles player Kevin Wong had taken the opening set against Tang Chih-Chun and was looking good in the second before his weakening physical condition as a result of previous week's influenza gave all the daylight his opponent had needed to revive his fortunes.

Tang Chih-Chun ended up winning a very losable face-off, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, though some credit must be given to the Taiwanese No. 1 for lifting his own game just in time to overcome a 3-0 final set deficit. Hong Kong WJT Boys' Team Captain, Alistair Todd, also reports that "the quality of ball-striking from both players was very high' in that match.

Similar to his Thai and Korean counterparts, Chinese No. 1 Chen Xin again failed to close the deal with a 1-0 lead in hand when he lost to Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka, 6-1, 7-5, after his teammate Wang Ao-Xiong had beaten Naoki Nakagawa, 6-3, 3-6, 8-6, to give China the early advantage.

For the third time today, the team with the lead in the quarterfinals ended up losing the decisive doubles and the match, as Yoshihito Nishioka combined with Keisuke Numajiri to beat China's one-two of Chen Xin and Wang Ao-Xiong, 6-3, 6-4, to put his side through to the last four.

The groupings were as follows (Brackets denote seedings):

Group A – (1)Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, (8)China
Group B – (4)Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, (6)Uzbekistan
Group C – (3)Australia, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, (5)Chinese Taipei
Group D – (2)Korea, Philippines, Myanmar, (7)India

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 defeated HONG KONG   3 – 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) d. Jonathan Cho/Brian Yeung (HKG) 1-6 6-2 6-4

Day Two (May 6)

(3)AUSTRALIA defeated HONG KONG  2 – 1
R-1 Nicholas Kyrgios (AUS) d. Jonathan Cho (HKG) 6-3 6-2
R-2 Jay Andrijic (AUS) d. Brian Yeung (HKG) 6-0 6-1
R-3 Kevin Wong/Brian Yeung (HKG) d. Jay Andrijic/Daniel Talens (AUS) 6-4 4-6 6-4

Day Three (May 7)

HONG KONG defeated SRI LANKA   3 – 0
R-1 Brian Yeung (HKIG) d. Aritha Weerasinghe (SRI) 6-1 6-1
R-2 Kevin Wong (HKG) d. Arron Assauw (SRI) 6-4 6-3
R-3 Jonathan Cho/Brian Yeung (HKG) d. Nishangan Nadaraja/Aritha Weerasinghe (SRI) 6-0 6-0

9th-16th PLACE PLAYOFFS

Day Four (May 8)

HONG KONG defeated SINGAPORE   3 – 0
R-1 Brian Yeung (HKIG) d. Rohan Kamdar (SIN) 6-2 6-1
R-2 Kevin Wong (HKG) d. Sean Lee (SIN) 6-1 6-3
R-3 Jonathan Cho/Brian Yeung (HKG) d. Sean Lee/Tan Jun Sing (SIN) 6-1 6-1

Photo courtesy of www.itftennis.com/juniors