Tennis: Top seed topples PHL bet in semis to win Indon Jr. Championship

Top-seeded Taiwanese Shao-Chi Yang defeated Filipino bet Alberto Lim Jr. in the semifinals, on his way to claiming the 2013 Thamrin Cup International Junior Championships title, defeating Hong Kong's Hei Yin Andrew Li, 6-3 5-7 6-3, on Sunday in Jakarta, Indonesia.

 

Fourteen-year-old Lim, the youngest player in the competition, reached the semifinals after defeating 13th seeded Taiwanese Ho Jun Lee, 6-1 6-1, in the final sixteen, and eighth seed Wei-De Lin from Taiwan in the quarterfinals, 7-5 7-5.

 

Lim won the first set against the 18-year-old Yang, before yielding the next two, 3-6 7-5 6-4.

 

"In terms of Alberto’s performance in the first leg, even if he is the youngest competitor in this event, I am very satisfied with the way he is holding up physically, mentally and technically against his much older rivals," said Lim's coach Manny Marcelo.

 

"The improvements in Alberto’s game are simply outstanding compared to last year where he lost in this very same tournament in the second round of the qualifiers. 

 

"Now Alberto has reached the semifinals of this event in singles, losing only to the top seed in three tough sets. This result showed the difference of what one year of hard work and coaching can do to a player with Alberto’s talent and skills."

 

The other Filipino in the contest, Eric Olivarez Jr., reached the final 16 of the tournament, but the unseeded 15-year-old fell to sixth seed Hei Yin Andrew Li of Hong Kong, 6-0 6-1.

 

In the doubles competition, second-seeded Lim and Taiwanese partner Han Yu Chen reached the quarterfinals, but fell to Indonesians Arief Rahman and Armando Soemarno, 6-3 6-3.

 

Olivarez and Singaporean partner Seth En Teoh earlier lost in the first round against Indonesian tandem of Roy Cahyo Setiabudi and Anthony Susanto, 6-2 1-6 [10-6]. - AMD, GMA News