Dubai: The top two seeds advanced easily to the second round of the singles at the 13th Dubai ITF Junior Championships by Zata at the Al Wasl Club’s tennis courts.
Top seed Filip Grbic of Serbia got the better of Hisham Adham Gabr of Egypt 6-4, 6-1, while second seed Akram Al Sallaly defeated Yemen’s Amer Mohammad Abdo 6-2, 6-3.
Gabr will now meet Karim Najia of Great Britain in the second round, while Al Sallaly will take on Eric Samuelson of Sweden.
Also advancing to the next round of the singles were the third and fourth seeds. Third seed Antonio Sabugueiro of Portugal defeated wild card from the UAE Fares Al Janahi 6-1, 6-1 to set a meeting with Kushaan Nath of India, while fourth seed Kareem Allaf from Syria beat Canellopolous from Greece 6-2, 6-2 to set a meeting with Indian Dhir Gala.
In the girls competition, two seeds fell in the opening round with fourth seed Emily Appleton of Great Britain losing in three sets against Egypt’s Nancy Fawzy and seventh seed Louise-Mare Botes also going down in three sets against Ainur Suleimenova of Kazakhstan.
The tournament will be held daily with the boys and girls singles finals being played on Saturday.
