Dubai: Unheralded Safa Talal stunned second seed Fatma Abbas Al Janahi to move into the girls' under-16 semifinal, while youngster Pranav Walia upset Mohammad Al Janahi in the boy's under-16 singles at the Holiday International Open in Sharjah.
Talal won in straight sets 6-3, 6-3, while Walia beat Al Janahi 6-3, 6-4 to enter the boys' under-16 final.
Walia is headed for a dream double after he made the boys' under-14 final with a 9-4 win over Arjuna Ajay.
In the boys' under-10 semifinal, second seed Fahad Al Janahi got the better of Abdullah Ahli 9-5 and will now face Alexey Poperin.
In the men's singles, top seed Alexey Filenkov defeated qualifier Sami Al Sa'adi 6-2, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinal.
In another close match, Nigerian Philip Adamu outfought Castro. Castro dominated the first set with his big serve and volley game. Things were close in the second with the score tied at 4-4 when a nervous Castro lost his serve and Adamu grabbed a 6-4 win. In the third set, Adamu was on top from the start to win it 6-2.
In other matches, second seed Gregory Howe had an easy 6-1, 6-0 win over Raj Kumar, while third seed Gaudio Van Rampey beat Ahmad Abramov 6-0, 6-0.
Close affair
The girls' under-16 quarters was a close affair. Talal found things going her way as she broke Al Janahi in the sixth game to take a 4-2 lead. She then went on to take the set 6-3. In the second set, Talal jumped to an early 3-0 lead, only to see the UAE teenager break back and make it 2-3. But the Egyptian kept up the pressure to take the next three games to win set and match 6-3.
Talal now takes on another UAE player Mariam Behroozian in the semifinal.
