Capadocia survives RP bets exit in ITF juniors tourney

National Under-16 champion Marian Jade Capadocia capitalized on Great Britain’s Manisha Foster’s weakness to complete a 6-4, 6-1 win at the start of the 21st Mitsubishi Lancer-International Tennis Championships (ITF) on Tuesday at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center. Capadacia, who is also the reigning Under-14 title holder and competing in her first ITF Grade I event, dictated the tempo of the match against her foe, who is ranked 387th in the world. “I saw that she’s not used to long rallies. So what I did was to continuously return the ball until she commits errors and lost steam in the second seat," said Capadocia, a sophomore high school student at Arellano University Mabini Campus. She arranged a second round meeting against 12th seed Ekaterina Nikitina of Russia on Wednesday hoping to earn the needed experience that she would bring in next month’s Federation Cup in Sarawak, Malaysia. Capadocia was the lone RP bet that won her match after seven other local female bets suffered defeats against seasoned rivals. Marinel Rudas lost to 136th-ranked Lin Zhu of China, 5-7,6-3, 6-3; Anna Clarice Patrimonio bowed to Alessia Camplone of Italy, 6-2, 6-2; Shanin Mae Olivarez suffered a 6-1, 6-2 setback against Kyra Shroff of India; Marianne Hilary de Guzman absorbed a 6-2, 6-3 defeat versus Ksenla Gospodinova of Russia; Katrina Orteza was beaten by Kanami Tsuji of Japan, 6-1, 6-0; and Jasmine Ho dropped a 6-0, 6-4 game against Kanyapat Narattana of Thailand. RP bets in the boys division were also eliminated with Leander Lazaro, Akio Sy and Jacob Lagman getting the early exit. Lazaro took a 6-3, 6-3, beating from Timur Neymatov of Russia; Sy bowed to Robin Olin of Sweden, 6-3, 6-0; and Lagman suffered a 6-0, 6-1 thrashing from Andrew Wittington. Fourth seed Francis Casey Alcantara, ranked 39th in the world, opens his title quest against the winner of the match between Vladik Munshaw of India and Ariez Elyass Deen Heshaam of Malaysia. Filipino-American Raymond Sarmiento is also expected to draw attention from the local fans after being seeded second in the tournament. – GMANews.TV