Top seeds tumble at Al Habtoor Challenge

Both the finalists from last year were knocked off, while crowd favourite and 2022 US Junior Open champion eased through in their opening round matches on the second day of the 27th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge being played at the Habtoor Grand Resort, on Tuesday.

Seeded No. 6, defending champion Anastasia Tikhonova battled for an hour and 49 minutes before caving in 6-2, 3-6, 2-6 against Japanese qualifier Mei Yamaguchi, while third-seeded 2023 runner-up Arianne Hartono of the Netherlands went down 4-6, 2-6 against Belgian qualifier, Sofia Costoulas.

19-year-old Alexandra Eala, who gladdened countless Filipinos en route to the title at the Junior US Open two years ago, paced herself well to get past 16-year-old Rada Zolotareva 6-2, 6-3 in a battle of teens.

On Monday, second-seeded Arina Rodionova had been among the big casualties of the first round, even as top seed Polina Kudermetova had disposed off Swiss girl Leonie Kung to advance.

On Tuesday, Tikhonova started off well while taking the opening set 6-2. But her Japanese opponent just dug in deep and took the next two sets 6-3, 6-2 to set a meeting with Canada’s Carol Zhoa – a 7-6, 6-1 winner against Israeli, Lina Glushko.

Yamaguchi was thrilled to secure two wins in as many days on her debut in this tournament. “The idea was to just hang in there. At most times, it is better to just win instead of playing well. This is the final tournament of the season for me and I would rather just secure wins here than play at a high level and lose,” she admitted.

“Honestly, even though I knew that I was up against the defending champion I made sure I just stuck to my game plan. Merely playing well and losing doesn’t mean much in the end,” Yamaguchi added.

Tikhonova was graceful in defeat. “It is what it is,” she smiled.

“Perhaps it is the tradition of this tournament where no one has so far managed to successfully defend their title,” the defending champion added.

“That aside, I have not played for a good two weeks and that showed on court today. Besides, she was playing well and there was hardly anything much that I could do out there,” she insisted.

No player has so far returned and successfully defended her title in this $100,000 tournament.

Impressing a large home crowd was 19-year-old left-hander Eala as she kept things under control.

An early break saw the young girl from the Philippines 3-0 ahead. Even though Zolotareva registered a break in the fourth, Eala had enough up her sleeve to ease through 6-2 in 33 minutes.

“It was unpredictable, but it was a good match all the same. There were some tight moments out there, but I think I had my answers and this win can only give me that extra bit of confidence,” Eala said.

“I am now into the next round and the idea is to take one match at a time and see how far my game can take me,” she added.