Sixteen year-old Venise Chan captured both the Girls' Singles and Doubles titles at the ITF Grade 4 Mouhafaza Club International Junior Tournament in Damascus, while Ronald Chow and Jessica Yang took home the Boys' and Girls' Singles respectively at the Grade 4 Mercedes Cup in Bangkok to hoist the Bauhinia flag simultaneously on two continents in the midst of international competition.

HKTA Vice President, Henry Chan, who chairs the Elite Committee that oversees a number of far-reaching initiatives to help nurture some of the best talents in the territory, said, "Our full-time players have shown very encouraging results on the international stage this past weekend. Both Venise Chan and Ronald Chow had been furthering their studies by way of virtual schools while, at the same time, training roughly 6-8 hours per day. Their hard work and dedication had been justified and duly accorded with career-high ITF Junior World Rankings for Venise (No. 129) and Ronald (No. 221) after their recent triumphs. Gilbert Wong has just turned full-time a couple of months ago and we are expecting similar results from this talented junior."

"Fifteen year-old Jessica Yang Zi-Jun was a newcomer from China and had been training under our programme for two months. She just won her first ITF World Junior Circuit title in Thailand over the weekend and had markedly improved her initial ranking of around 750 to the present 241. We are expecting her to be in the 100's by the end of this year to join both Venise and Zhang Ling (No. 95) respectively."

"Full-time training with on-line schooling is vital to success, and our players' recent endeavours are a testament to that. The HKTA will continue to encourage and support those players who are willing to commit and dedicate themselves to the cause," added Henry Chan.

HKTA General Manager, Janet Hardisty, echoed her sentiments, "What a good month so far it has been for Hong Kong tennis at both the junior and senior levels. We are extremely proud of the way our Davis Cup team gained promotion by sweeping the Group III Playoffs right here in Hong Kong and delighted that our juniors are starting to show so much promise and making inroads towards the upper echelons of world junior tennis today."

"In addition, one of our younger juniors, Ryan Cheung, was earlier awarded a special invite from the Asian Tennis Federation to be part of the ITF Asian 14U Team that is touring Europe at the moment, and competing in a number of prestigious tournaments against other leading under-14 juniors from around the world," she added.

At the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas 2005 Asia/Oceania Zone Group III Playoffs at Victoria Park last week, the HK foursome of Wayne Wong, Yu Hiu Tung, Brian Hung, and Martin Sayer, engineered five successive 3-0 victories to power the territory to Group II promotion in dominant fashion.

There did exist a couple of moments of truth for Hong Kong's top two men, Wayne Wong and Yu Hiu Tung, however, as they both had to up-the-ante to overcome the one-set deficits they had faced in the tie against Malaysia before triumphing in both opening singles to stake the team to an insurmountable 2-0 lead.

In fact, Yu Hiu Tung saved four match points at 5-4 down in the deciding set against Malaysian number one, Si Yew-Ming, when solid play under pressure and a couple of outrageously clean backhand crosscourt passes enabled the HK Davis Cupper to save them all and level at 5-5. Tung then seized the force to conjure another break of serve to eventually win the tie-clinching rubber, 3-6, 7-6(2), 7-5.

Hong Kong moves up to 58th spot on the ITF Davis Cup Nations Ranking List ahead of Lebanon (No. 60), Pacific Oceania (No. 63), Kazakhstan (No. 65), and Malaysia (No. 78), four of the seven potential foes the territory might be drawn against in the first round of Asia/Oceania Zone Group II next year.

The other three will consist of Thailand (No. 25) or Indonesia (No. 42), Korea (No. 41) or New Zealand (No. 44), and Kuwait (No. 56).

In Damascus, Syria, top-seeded Venise Chan swept through the draw without coming close to dropping a set all week, as she hauled in her second straight title on the ITF World Junior Circuit by beating eighth-seeded, Jaklin Alawi, of Bulgaria 6-1, 6-4, in the Girls' Singles final of the Mouhafaza Club International ITF Jr Tournament after having triumphed at the previous week's G4 Pangdam Siliwangi Cup in Indonesia.

She made it a 'double' in Damascus by teaming up with Egypt's Rana El Derwy to capture the Girls' Doubles crown when the number one seeded HK-Egyptian duo defeated Jaklin Alawi of Bulgaria and Tejaswini Datta of India, 6-2, 6-1, in the final.

Up next for Venise is the Grade 2 SATPC Junior ITF Tournament in Pretoria, South Africa, where she is the projected ninth seed in the Girls' Singles. Last year, the Hong Kong Junior Fed Cup representative took the first set against No. 1 seed and top-15 junior, Hsu Wen-Hsin, of Chinese Taipei in the second round before being upended in three sets.

World No. 60, Elena Chernyakova, is expected to head the Girls' field in Pretoria this week.

After sweeping both titles in Syria, Venise is now ranked at a career-high of No. 129.

Meanwhile, in Bangkok, after getting eliminated by Kittipong Wachiramanowong of Thailand, 6-4, 4-6, 1-6, in the semis at the Maxx Hotel Junior Tennis Championships a fortnight ago, Ronald Chow gained sweet revenge by saving three match points at 4-5 and 0-40 down in the third set to overcome the same player, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, in the semifinals at last week's Grade 4 2005 Mercedes Cup.

The HK 18U number three then saw off another local entry, No. 7 seed Peerakit Siributwong, 7-5, 6-3, to capture his first career title on the world junior circuit.

There was also a first title for Jessica Yang in the Girls' Singles, as the No. 7 seed defeated fourth-seeded, Jeong Yoon-Young, of Korea 6-4, 7-5, in the title match.

Jessica had only dropped one set in her run to the crown when she disposed of No. 2 seed, Chin Seul-Ki, of Korea 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, earlier in the quarterfinals.

She now moves up to a career-best ITF Junior World Ranking of No. 241.

Results
Mouhafaza Club International Junior Tournament (Grade 4)
Damascus, Syria
11-16 July 2005

Girls' Singles

Second Round
(1)Venise Chan (HKG) d. Yasmine Sahyoun (LIB) 6-2 6-2

Quarterfinals
(1)Venise Chan (HKG) d. (6)Tejaswini Datta (IND) 6-1 6-4

Semifinals
(1)Venise Chan (HKG) d. (3)Karina Ahuja (IND) 6-1 6-2

Final
(1)Venise Chan (HKG) d. (8)Jaklin Alawi (BUL) 6-1 6-4

Girls' Doubles

Quarterfinals
(1)Venise Chan/Rana El Derwy (HKG/EGY) d. Anushka Kapoor/Amrita Sethi (IND) 6-0 6-0

Semifinals
(1)Venise Chan/Rana El Derwy (HKG/EGY) d. Karina Ahuja/Akshita Raj (IND) 3-6 6-3 6-1

Final
(1)Venise Chan/Rana El Derwy (HKG/EGY) d. Jaklin Alawi/Tejaswini Datta (BUL/IND) 6-2 6-1

Results
The 2005 Mercedes Cup – Bangkok International Junior Tennis Championships (Grade 4)
Ramkhamhaeng University Tennis Courts, Thailand
11-16 July 2005

Boys' Singles

Second Round
(1)Ronald Chow (HKG) d. Kitanoo Puthong (THA) 3-6 6-3 6-1
Lim Hyun-Soo (KOR) d. (14)Ambrose Wong (HKG) 6-2 6-0
(12)Gilbert Wong (HKG) d. Takao Ohno (JPN) 6-3 3-6 6-1

Third Round
(1)Ronald Chow (HKG) d. Seo Jeong-Han (KOR) 7-5 3-6 6-1
(7)Peerakit Siributwong (THA) d. (12)Gilbert Wong (HKG) 6-3 6-1

Quarterfinals
(1)Ronald Chow (HKG) d. Seno Hartono Suwandi (INA) 6-2 6-1

Semifinals
(1)Ronald Chow (HKG) d. (4)Kittipong Wachiramanowong (THA) 4-6 6-2 7-5

Final
(1)Ronald Chow (HKG) d. (7)Peerakit Siributwong (THA) 7-5 6-3

Girls' Singles

First Round
(7)Jessica Yang Zi-Jun (HKG) d. Gayatri Krishnan (IND) 6-3 6-2

Second Round
(7)Jessica Yang Zi-Jun (HKG) d. Liu Chang (CHN) 6-2 6-3

Quarterfinals
(7)Jessica Yang Zi-Jun (HKG) d. (2)Chin Seul-Ki (KOR) 6-1 2-6 6-4

Semifinals
(7)Jessica Yang Zi-Jun (HKG) d. Uthumporn Pudtra (THA) 6-0 6-2

Final
(7)Jessica Yang Zi-Jun (HKG) d. (4)Jeong Yoon-Young (KOR) 6-4 7-5

Boys' Doubles

Second Round
Ma Kai-Chieh/Ma Kai-Chun (TPE) d. (3)Ronald Chow/Gilbert Wong (HKG) 6-3 6-3

Girls' Doubles
First Round
(4)Yang Zi-Jun/Yang Yi-Ching (HKG) d. Liu Chang/Yang Yi, Jr. (CHN) 6-0 6-4

Quarterfinals
Sophia Mulsap/Varanya Vijuksanaboon(THA) d. (4)Yang Zi-Jun/Yang Yi-Ching (HKG) 7-5 2-6 6-4

Venise Chan photo courtesy of www.itftennis.com