Hong Kong's Venise Chan continued her winning ways into unchartered territory when she saw off the spirited challenge of Czarina-Mae Arevalo of the Philippines, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, in the second round of the women's singles yesterday to set up a mighty showdown with Tashkent native and fourth-seeded world No. 232, Akgul Amanmuradova, for a place in the semifinals of the Asian Championships 2005 in Uzbekistan. [2nd Round Results]
In the match against Arevalo, both Venise and her opponent were finding it hard to settle down in the early stages as they collaborated on a break-serve fest that went an astounding eleven games right from the word go before the 16-year-old from Hong Kong produced the initial breakthrough to take the opener. However, a lot more work was to be done as a slight lapse in concentration allowed her opponent just enough daylight to come back to take the second before the Hong Kong 18U number one managed to regroup mentally to produce the kind of winning tennis that is required to wrap up deciding sets.
HKSI Head Tennis Coach, Stan Tamura, reports from the Uzbek capital: "Both Venise and her Filipino opponent were very erratic, and in the first set there were eleven straight service breaks, with Venice finally holding at 6-5 to take the set. In the second, she seemed to have relaxed a little and that allowed her opponent to get back in and take the set to draw even. Venice steadied her game in the third, and together with her superiority in fitness, which was enough to separate the two."
Venise's opponent in the quarterfinals, 21-year-old Uzbek Fed Cupper, Akgul Amanmuradova, the number four seed, is presently ranked at a career-high No. 232. She was a singles semifinalist at the Asian Championships in 2003 when she lost to eventual winner, Chuang Chia-Jung, of Taiwan, 6-4, in the third. She also teamed up with fellow countrywoman, Ivanna Isroilova, to win the 2003 women's doubles by defeating No. 3 seeds Chuang Chia-Jung and Chan Chin-Wei of Chinese Taipei, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, in the championship game.
Since making a belated debut on the ITF Women's Circuit towards the tail-end of 2004, Amanmuradova had since won singles titles at the C10 Pune in India and the C10 Bangkok in Thailand, and collected an additional four circuit doubles titles. In January this year, she reached the last sixteen of the WTA T4 in Pattaya City as a qualifier before losing to Israel's 60th ranked Shahar Peer. At the WTA T4 in Hyderabad the following month, won by India's Sania Mirza, Amanmuradova again won through three rounds of qualies before falling to Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn in the maindraw opener.
Moreover, the Tashkent native got to the quarterfinals or better in four other US$25,000 tournaments, with the latest one coming at the C25 Coimbra in Portugal just last month. She was also in New York for the US Open Qualies but fell to former top-50 player, Rita Kuti Kis, of Hungary in the opener.
Surprisingly, local crowd favourite Amanmuradova is no stranger to past Hong Kong Fed Cup squads, as she engineered the Uzbeks to a 2-1 victory over a team consisted of Tong Ka Po, Lam Po Kuen and Jenny Lin in an Asia/Oceania Group I Pool match in March 2002 in Guangzhou. In fact, Polly had played her twice before, losing 6-1, 7-5, in the above mentioned Fed Cup tie, and again by the score of 6-1, 6-3, at the 22nd World University Games in Daegu, Korea, two years ago.
HKTA Head Coach, Benny Lin, who is in charge of the HKTA Academy programme under which Venise had been training full-time since September 2004, commented, "Before the Junior Fed Cup in May, we've been working very, very hard on Venise's game. I told her that if she could do well at the JFC, she would get back her confidence, raise her game to another level and gain the momentum for the rest of the year, as she had suffered an injury in India in January and was out of tennis for some time. As we all know, she did great at the JFC, and now she is improving rapidly after each tournament. I must say that for the last few months, Venise has been working so hard - on and off the court (online school)."
"Regardless of the quarterfinal results, we're very proud of Venise's achievement at the Asian Championships. It has been a wonderful week for the HKTA Academy programme," added Benny.
Earlier, the women's doubles tandem of Lam Po Kuen and Venise Chan fell to fellow unseeds, Rushmi Chakravarthi and Isha Lakhani, of India, 6-4, 6-3, in the quarterfinals, while the men's pairing of Yu Hiu Tung and Michael Lai went out to top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Alexey Kedriouk in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2.
Meanwhile in the men's draw, most of the big names made it to the last eight, with Alexey Kedriouk defeating sixth-seeded Rohan Bopanna of India, 6-2, 6-2, to set up a meeting with No.1, Danai Udomchoke, of Thailand in the quarters.
Korean world No. 369, Im Kyu-Tae, was the only other seed to have lost, as he battled Kuwaiti number one, Mohammed Al Ghareeb, ranked at a career-high No. 520, to a standstill before being ousted in a third set tiebreak, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(2). Al Ghareeb will face No. 2 seed and world No. 196, Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan for a place in the final four.
The other two quarterfinal match-ups pit No. 3 seed Satoshi Iwabuchi of Japan against No. 7 Kwon Oh-Hee of Korea, while fourth seed Chen Ti of Taiwan will face No. 5 seed and 2002 champion, Gouichi Motomura, of Japan for the remaining semifinal berth.
The Asian Championships is being held for the fourth consecutive year in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The event has a total purse worth US$100,000 not to mention the exciting reward of wildcard entries to next year's Australian Open for the men's and women's singles champions.
It was precisely the 2001 Asian Championships in Hong Kong that launched the fledgling careers of Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan and Korean number one, Cho Yoon-Jeong, who went on to compete in their first Grand Slam the following year at the 2002 Aussie Open. Since then, both had both been permanent fixtures in the ATP and WTA Top-50 rankings lists.
Results
US$100,000 Asian Championships 2005
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
3-10 September 2005
Women's Singles - Second Round
Venise Chan (HKG) d. Czarina-Mae Arevalo (PHI) 7-5 3-6 6-3
Men's Doubles - First Round
(1)Rohan Bopanna/Alexey Kedriouk (IND/KAZ) d. Yu Hiu Tung/Michael Lai (HKG) 6-2 6-2
Women's Doubles - Quarterfinals
Rushmi Chakravarthi/Isha Lakhani (IND) d. Lam Po Kuen/Venise Chan (HKG) 6-4 6-3