Rungkat top-seeded in 3rd Qatar Futures tennis

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA THE fourth Qatar ITF Futures, which began at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex on Monday, is guaranteed to produce a new champion.

France’s Clement Reix, who won two titles in as many weeks, is not present in the draw of this week’s event.

The pride of place has gone to Indonesian Christopher Rungkat, a winner of seven singles Futures titles, with two of them coming this year in Thailand and Indonesia.

Benjamin Balleret from Monaco is the No. 2 seed and hopes to have a stronger showing than in last week’s event where he lost in the first round.

Oliver Golding of Great Britain is the No. 3 seed and the finalist from the second Qatar ITF Futures.

Other seeds are No. 4 Marek Semjan from Slovakia, No. 5 Roman Jebavy from the Czech Republic, No. 6 Abdullah Maqdas from Kuwait, No. 7 James Marsalek from Great Britain and No. 8 Francois-Arthur Vibert from France.

Three of the four wild cards to the main draw have been given to Qatari players Jabor Ali Mutawa, Mousa Shanan Zayed and Abdullah al Mohamoud. The fourth one has been landed by UAE’s Oman Awadhy, ranked 1552nd in the world.

This is the final of three consecutive International Tennis Federation events that have been held in Doha over as many weeks. Hosting these events allows the Qatar Tennis Federation to showcase its place on the world tennis stage and bring international players to the region while providing an opportunity for members of the national team to play against a global field of athletes.

Tournament Director Saad al Mohannadi said of this event, “The fourth Qatar ITF Futures event is the culmination of three weeks of tournaments that have highlighted our Qatari players as well as players from around the world.” In the qualifying finals, six of the eight seeded players won their matches and entered the main round.

Pakistan’s Shahbaz Khan caused the biggest flutter when he knocked out No 1 American Austin Karosi after the latter, trailing 7-5 3-6 0-5, defaulted.

Delf Gohlke of Germany was another impressive winner against Punn Bodhidatta, a Thai player who had shocked second seed Hasier Pastor in the first match.

Others to make it to the main round were: No 3 Matteo Donati (Italy), No 4 Richard Ruckelshausen (Austria), Mehdo Bouras (Algeria), Alexander Zhurbin (Russia), No 7 Andrea Basso (Italy) and No 8 Alexander Zverev (Germany).

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