The Hong Kong girls' under-14 trio of Katherine Ip, Venus Pang, and Eudice Chong was beaten by 4th-seeded Indonesia in the final playoff game to finish in 6th place overall at this year's World Junior Tennis Asia/Oceania Qualifying. Information available on ITF's WJT Archive indicates this year's result was the best position attained since 2001.

Postscript: The sixth position this year actually equalled the previous all-time high achieved back in 1992 when the event was called the NTT.

Besides the final day setback against the Indonesians, the territory's other losses in this edition came against No. 1 seeds Japan during the round robins, and No. 5 seeds China in the quarterfinals, where a win against the latter would have qualified Hong Kong for the World Junior Tennis Finals.

The toughest win for Team HK was likely the 5th-8th Place Playoffs on Friday when both Venus Pang and Katherine Ip were stretched to a deciding set in the singles match-ups.

At No. 2 singles, it took Venus Pang two hours and forty minutes before seeing off Kamonwan Buayam (ITF 1716), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. At No. 1 singles, Katherine Ip yielded the opening set to Gornganok Tiraganok (ITF 830), before winning their encounter, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, in two hours and twenty-eight minutes of play.

Previously, the best showing from a Hong Kong team at the WJT Girls' Regionals was most probably the 2004 Asia/Oceania Qualifying in Melbourne, Australia, where the trio of Geraldine Leong, Sher Chun Wing, and Tsang Pui Yee came home in 8th place following the 7-8th Place Playoff loss on the last day against Philippines.

In 2003, Venise Chan managed to beat the number ones from Korea, Thailand, Philippines, and India but the team as a whole just managed to cling onto 10th place following a three-way playoff for 9-11th positions. Her lone loss that year came at the hands of Indonesian No. 1, Lutfiana-Aris Budiharto in straight sets.

Funnily enough, Budiharto, who is almost a year older, has just completed her rookie season at NCAA Division I outfit, Wichita State, where she was the designated No. 2 singles player this past season. She ended up peaking at No. 85 in the junior ranks (20 Mar 2006) and also WTA No. 725 (13 Aug 2007) but remains without a title on the pro circuit thus far. Her best results were three semifinal appearances at the same C10 Jakarta tournament during the summer of 2005, 2006, and 2008.

Check out Venise Chan's player profile and career highlights in chronological order.

Meanwhile, back to the final in Kuching between No. 5 seeds China and top seed Japan saw Chinese number one, Li Yi-Hong, lose for the first time this week, which came against the second highest-ranked player present this week, Miho Kowase (ITF 384). However, that did not stop China from taking first place, as Sun Zi-Yue won against Mami Adachi at the two spot, 6-2, 6-2, and then collaborating with Li Yi-Hong to beat Ayaka Okuno and Mami Adachi, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.

Third place went to No. 2 seeds Korea, who regrouped from the previous day's semifinal disappointment to beat third seed Australia 2-1.

The final few days of this year's event in Kuching saw the untimely interruptions of heavy rain showers but luckily there were no unfinished matches. Below are photos of the top-4 placed girls' teams at the 2009 World Junior Tennis Asia/Oceania Qualifying courtesy of the event's referee, Mr. Gary Au-Yeung:

Results
World Junior Tennis Competition 2009
Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying
Kuching, Malaysia
May 11-17, 2009

Day Six (May 16)

5th-6th Place Playoff

(4)INDONESIA defeated (7)HONG KONG   2 – 1
R-1 Voni Darlina (INA) d. Venus Pang (HKG) 6-3 6-1
R-2 Katherine Ip (HKG) d. Aldila Sutjiadi (INA) 6-1 6-2
R-3 Aldila Sutjiadi/Voni Darlina (INA) d. Katherine Ip/Eudice Chong (HKG) 6-0 6-2

For complete draws and results, please redirect via this link.

Lead photo courtesy of itftennis.com/juniors