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Zaid, Arash, Saleh advance in Marbella Open tennis

SHARJAH — Muhammed Zaid battled hard to overcome veteran Omar Elmi 7-6, 7-5 in the men’s singles of the18th Marbella Open Tennis Championship here on Saturday night.

In the other men’s singles matches, Talebi Arash got the better of Yasser M. 6-2, 6-2 while Ali Saleh outplayed Maher Chinawi 6-1, 6-0.

And in the women’s singles Open, Tanya Volkova defeated promising youngster Kim Saadi 6-1, 6-0.In the boys’10 and under singles, Rami Khalef outplayed Fares Al Janahi 9-3 and Arjuna Ajay moved into the semifinals without losing a game as he beat R. Arjun 9-0. In the boys’ 12 and under singles, Marwan Al-Kaissi edged out Majid Bushagar 9-8 in a close and exciting encounter which lasted more than one hour and a half. In another match, Mohideen Suwaidi saw off Nikhil Udayasankar 9-4 while Shyam Vasudevan beat Shyam Srinivasan 9-4.

Mohammed Al Janahi recovered to oust Ramzi Hanna 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 in the boys’ 14 and under singles. The first set went 6-6 with both players breaking each other’s serve twice. In the tiebreaker Ramzi produced some running forehand winners to take the tiebreak 7-4 and set.

In the second set Ramzi broke Mohammed and took a 3-1 lead only to lose the next three games. With serves tied at 6-6, Mohammed won the tiebreaker 7-5. The third set was a see-saw struggle with both players losing serve twice. Again with the scores tied 6-6 Mohammed took a 3-0 in the tiebreaker. However, Ramzi made it 3-3. With the scores tied at 6-6, Mohammed won the next two points to win the tiebreaker 8-6 and the match which lasted two hours.

Victoria Djurovic, meanwhile, blanked out Yara Attia 6-0, 6-0 in the girls’ 16 and under event to move into the next round.

In the men’s Doubles, Eric Gottschalk and Stephan Muller moved into the semifinals with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Ananth Srivatsa and Anshuman Kishore. Jane Storey and Angela Kerkaan upset second seed Karen Backer and Sandrella Al Droubi 6-3, 6-3 in the women’s doubles event.

In the boys 14 under doubles, Arjuna A/Arjun Singh moved into the semifinals after beating Nikhil Udayasankar/Ashwin Patro 6-2, 6-3.

The tournament, held under the patronage of Shaikh Mohammed. bin Saud Al Qassimi, Chairman of Finance & Administration Department, Government of Sharjah, is sponsored by Bank of Sharjah, Kia Motors, National Paints, Al Khaleej, Gulf Today, Sun & Sand Sports L.L.C. and co-sponsored by Sharjah TV, Tiffany.

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