RP’s last ITF hope advances
Fil-American Riza Zalameda trounced South Korean Han Na-lae, 6-3, 6-3, last Wednesday to barge into the quarterfinals of the PLDT-Smart ITF Women’s Circuit Week 2 at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.
The Los Angeles-based netter, who will try to relive her 2005 Manila Southeast Asian Games campaign in Laos next month, exploited the South Korean’s error-prone play to arrange a Last 8 meeting with Week 1 runner-up and fourth seed Yoo Mi, also from South Korea and a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Trang Huynh Phuong Dai of Vietnam.
Top seed Elodie Rogge-Dietrich of France, earlier, led the march of the other seeds into the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-0 drubbing of Taiwan’s Juan Ting-fei.
Next for the world No. 602 will be Chinese Shaoshuo Liu, who bumped off compatriot Zhang Nan-nan, 6-4, 6-0.
Week 1 champion Lee Ye-ra of Korea kept herself on track for a back-to-back titles when she routed Gally De Wael of Belgium, 6-1, 6-3, to arrange a duel with No. 7 compatriot Han Sung-hee, a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Beatrice Gumulya of Indonesia.
Japanese third pick Mari Inuoe needed a decider to survive Korean qualifier You Ju-hee, 1-6, 7-5, 6-1, for a quarterfinals meeting with No. 8 Nicha Lertpitaksinchai of Thailand, who blanked Ivana King of the United States, 6-0, 6-0.




