Garcia wins back-to-back titles in Sri Lanka tennis tourney

FILE: BACK-TO-BACK CHAMPIONS. Filipino Matthew Anton Garcia (right) and Thai Tanapatt Nirundorn show the medals they won at the Sri Lanka International Tennis Federation (ITF) Circuit in Colombo City. (Contributed photo)

MANILA — Matthew Anton Garcia and partner Tanapatt Nirundorn of Thailand won their second straight doubles title at the Sri Lanka International Tennis Federation (ITF) Junior Circuit in Colombo.

Garcia and Nirundorn scored a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Kim Hyeong Jin and Kim Sunwoo of South Korea in their championship showdown at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association Centre outdoor clay court on Saturday.

On their way to the finals, the Filipino-Thai tandem won over tournament top seeds Prasanna Pravin Bagade and Kushan Shah (6-1, 6-3); wild cards Luca Emanuel Knese of Germany and Kavisha Ratnayake of Sri Lanka (6-2, 6-4); and Nan Hsun Lin and Kai Shiang Yang of Chinese Taipei (6-0, 6-3).

The South Koreans, on the other hand, marched on to the final round after beating Subash Paramasivam of India and Arjun Sriram of the United States (6-7 [4], 6-2 [10-6]); Nauvaldo Jati Agra of India and Yu Shiang Huang of Chinese Taipei (6-3, 7-5); and Tim Thomas Gauntlett of Hong Kong and Brandon Suryana of Indonesia (6-1, 6-3).

In other results, Baolo Zheng of China downed Sandeep VM of India, 6-2, 6-4, to pocket the boys’ singles title, while ninth seed Mei Hasegawa of Japan pulled off a 6-2, 7-6 (5) upset win over third seed Malikaa Marathe of India, to capture the girls’ singles title.

The girls’ doubles title went to second seeds Chui Kei Leung of Hong Kong and Jessica Christa Wirahadipoernomo of Indonesia, who won over Archita Mahalwal and Akshaya Suresh of India, 6-3, 7-6 (5).

“We played really well in the first set just like in the whole tournament. Then in the second set, we were more nervous and tight because we were thinking too far ahead of the match. However, we still managed to regroup and close it out,” said the 16-year-old Garcia in an online interview on Sunday.

“I’m so happy to win my first ITF title, let alone two titles back to back,” added Garcia, a 10th grade student at the Brent International School.

Garcia and Nirundorn won last week’s doubles title over Subash Paramasivam of India and Arjun Sriram of United States, 6-2, 6-1. They eliminated second seeds Tejasvi Mehra and Sandeep VM of India, 6-2, 7-6 (7), to reach the finals.

Garcia, the only son of former national champion Dyan Castillejo, has been training under coach Marc Reyes for the past two years.

He debuted at the ITF Junior Circuit last year, reaching the doubles quarterfinals with Japanese Tsubasa Koga at the Canberra Junior International in September. His first tournament this year was in Hong Kong.