Varun Venkat of the US continued his winning ways and made it to the main draw of the Seventh Bahrain ITF Juniors (Under-18) Championship which begins today at Bahrain Tennis Club in Juffair. 

Varun beat Sarang Phadnis of India 6-1, 6-1 yesterday in the final qualifying round to book a berth in the main draw. He was joined by Seif Shawky, ranked 2,321 in the world,  who beat Musaeed Alazzam of Saudi Arabia 6-3, 6-1.

The two remaining berths were claimed by Rahul Jaideep of India and Bader Al Asous of Saudi Arabia who beat their compatriots Aditya Mori 6-1, 6-4 and Rajeh Al Rajeh 6-4, 6-1 respectively.

Mori, however, was included in the main draw as lucky loser. The main draw features eight players from hosts Bahrain though top ranked Mohammed Abdulaal pulled out at the last minute due to a knee injury.

“I have just came out of a surgery on my left knee and though I’ve been playing for almost two months, I have started to feel pain in my knee. I am pulling out for safety measures,” said Mohammed, who has a world ranking of 1,901.

In the first round today, Bahrain’s Ali Dawani, who has a world ranking of 1,594, will face unranked qualifier Bader while his compatriot Hamad Abdulaal takes on top ranked Ammar Al Hogbani of the US, ranked 375.

In other matches featuring Bahrani players, Hasan Al Qattan takes on Fares Al Janahi of the UAE, who is ranked 1,594, Yousif Dhaif meets third seed Carlos Kelaidis of Switzerland, ranked 587,  Husain Dawani clashes with Cyprus’ Elefterios Neos, ranked 755, Elyas Abdulnabi faces qualifier Shawky, Youssef Ashraf challenges Christian Linge of Norway, ranked 650, and Omar Qaed confronts second seed Mohamed Abdel Aziz of Egypt, ranked 415.

Bahrain will be represented by two players – Ridah Nayeemullah and Mannni Zhang – in the main draw of the girls section and both will be in action today.

Ridah takes on Turkey’s Ayca Erturk while Manni meets Tzarina Tuen-Matthews of the UK.

Top seed German Emelie Schwarte, ranked 509, and Egyptian second seed Ahlam Shawkat, ranked 514, have received byes into the second round. The draw will be made tomorrow.

The last day to sign up for the boys and girls doubles is today. 

Today’s matches start at 8.30am