Changawa and Polish partner storm quarters

Kenya’s Ismael Changawa Ruwa, paired with Poland’s Julian Turosienski, stormed the quarter-finals of the doubles event at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Ranking Tournament at Mombasa Sports Club on Wednesday.

The pair registered a 7-5, 6-4 win over a Botswana/Poland pair of Lame Botshoma and Bartosz Korzeniewski.

Ruwa, seeded 12th in the boys’ singles, qualified for the last 16 when he knocked out Rishi Shah of Great Britain with a 6-3, 6-4 victory.

In a shock result, top seed Nikit Prasad Adusumuli of India and Belgium’s Romain Barbosa were locked out in the first round.

The unseeded pair of Eduard Leonard Mihaescu from Romania and Italy’s Fabrizio Rosini caused an upset 7-6, 6-3 victory over the top-seeded pair to qualify for the boys’ doubles quarter-finals.

Celebrated birthday

India’s Andusumuli, seed number one in the boys’ singles got another setback when he was upset by Mihaescu, who won 6-1, 6-1 to qualify for the quarter-finals set to start on Thursday.

However, second seed Romain Barbosa from Belgium put up a sterling show to beat Poland’s Damain Okrutny 6-4, 6-4 while third seed Isaac Stoute also sailed to the pre-quarter-finals after beating Sweden’s Felix Taube 6-2, 6-4.

Fourth seeded David Fox of Great Britain, who celebrates his 17th birthday on February 20, maintained his winning form to edge Jeroen Royakkas of Belgium 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Kenya’s Derrick Atunga Onyancha, seeded seventh, celebrated his 17th birthday with a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Artur Completo of Portugal.

Winning streak

Onyancha also failed to go farther than the first round in the boys’ doubles when, partnering Britain’s Isaac Stoute, suffered an upset 6-7, 7-5 loss to a Pascal Klos of Poland and Liang Yu Lin of Taipei.

Third-seeded pair of Samm Butler of Britain and Greece’s Mivhail-Anastasios Psarros got a rude shock when they were upset 6-3, 7-6 by a pair of Slovakia’s Blaz Bizjak and Jeroen Royakkers from Greece.

It was the end of the road for girls’ singles third-seeded Kenya’s Nikita Dawda, who failed to qualify for the quarter-final after bowing down 7-6, 6-4 to unseeded Madagascar’s H Andriamananarivo.

The girls’ singles top-seed Yasmin Ebada of Egypt maintained her winning streak when she edged Britain’s Farah Abdelaziz 6-0, 6-2 to qualify for the quarter-finals.