NATIONAL rep Saoirse Breen made a bright start at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Oceania Open Junior Championship at the Regional Tennis Centre in Nadovu, Lautoka yesterday.
Breen won her opening girl’s singles main draw encounter defeating Riko Ebina of Japan 6-4, 6-1 in one hour and 50 minutes.
She will face Xiaoyan Xue of China in the second round. Ruby Coffin of Lautoka went down fighting to Maya Haidari of Australia in the opening round.
Coffin won the first set 6-3 but failed to keep up her momentum losing the next two sets 6-2, 6-1.
Meanwhile the top seeds reign supreme during the 2018 ITF South Pacific Open Junior Championship which ended at the same venue on Sunday.
The No. 1 seed from India Mann Shah won the boy’s singles title defeating Japan’s Ayato Arakaki 6-4, 6-0.
In the girls singles final favourite Carol Lee from the Northern Marianas played exceptional tennis to defeat Japan’s Ikumi Yamazaki 6-2, 6-1.
Tennis Fiji sports development and engagement adviser Paul Owen said there was outstanding display of tennis from all players with the winners having too much class on the final day.
“In the boys doubles final, it was the Indian pair of Mann Shah and Aaryan Zaveri who won a hard fought contest against second seeds Ryota Ishii from Japan and Kamil Kozlowski from Australia winning 7-6 6-7 and 10-8 in the tie breaker,” Owen said.
“The girl’s doubles final wasn’t played after Manami Ukita picked up an injury. Second seeds Wing Ka Lin from Hong Kong and Jingyi Wang from China took the trophy from Manami Ukita and Ikumi Yamazaki of Japan.
