CHAMPION. Matthew Anton Garcia prepares to serve during the doubles final of the Sri Lanka ITF Junior Circuit Week 1 on Sunday (September 9, 2018). (Contributed photo)
MANILA -- Matthew Anton Garcia and his partner, Tanapatt Nirundorn of Thailand, stunned the tandem of top seeds Prasanna Pravin Bagade and Kushan Shah of India, 6-1, 6-3, to advance to the boys' doubles quarterfinals in the ongoing Sri Lanka ITF Junior Circuit Week 2 at the Sri Lanka Tenis Association courts in Colombo.
The victory set up the Filipino-Thai pair against wild cards Luca Emanuel Knese of Germany and Kavisha Ratnayake of Sri Lanka.
Knese and Ratnayake won over Muhammad Nauman and Ahmad Asjad Qureshi of Pakistan, 6-3, 6-4, in their first-round match.
Meanwhile, Jian Keong Takeshi Koey of Malaysia and Boopathy Sakthivel of India defeated wild cards Dhivan Herath and Shivendra Perera of Sri Lanka, 6-3, 6-2, to become the only seeds remaining in the tournament after second seeds Anurag Agarwal and Jaishvin Sidana, and fourth seeds Tejasvi Mehra and Sandeep VM were sent packing by their respective opponents.
Koey and Sakthivel will be up against Tim Thomas Gauntlett of Hong Kong and Brandon Suryana of Indonesia, who beat Aditya Katticaren and Rohan Srivastava of India, 6-1, 6-3.
Agarwal and Sidana bowed to Nauvaldo Jati Agatra of Indonesia and Yu Shiang Huang of Chinese Taipei, 3-6, 2-6, while Mehra and VM lost to Nan Hsun Lin and Kai Shiang Yang of Chinese Taipei, 2-6, 2-6.
Agatra and Huang will face Kim Hyeong-jin and Kim Sunwoo of South Korea, who rallied past Subash Paramasivam of India and Arjun Sriram of United States, 6-7 (4), 6-2 [10-6].
Lin and Yang, on the other hand, will meet Rudra Kapoor of India and Baoluo Zheng of China, who won over Aryaan Bhatia and Uddayvir Singh of India, 2-6, 6-1 [11-9].
Garcia and Nirundorn are coming off their doubles victory last week. They beat Paramasivam and Sriram, 6-2, 6-1, in the final.
“I am so happy with the win. We were not expecting it. I was not even sure to play our first round because of leg cramps but we pulled through and kept on fighting,” said the 16-year-old Garcia, a 10th grade student at Brent International School.
Garcia, who is training under coach Marc Reyes for two years now, said: "Right now, the goal is to get US college scholarship and if successful, pro after".
Garcia debuted in the ITF Junior Circuit last year, reaching the doubles quarterfinals with Japanese Tsubasa Koga at the Canberra Junior International in September. His first tournament this year was in Hong Kong. (PNA)
