Cebuano tennis ace Arthur Craig Pantino kept the flame of hope alive in his bid to top the Indonesia ATF Under-14 Series tennis tournament after he barged into the quarterfinal round with a convincing win at the Kemayoran Tennis Center in Jakarta, Indonesia last Wednesday.
Pantino, a double titlist in the August 201419th JRG Gullas Cup age group tennis tournament, waylaid qualifier Mohamad Irzad Shazurin Sulaini of Indonesia in the second round 6-3, 6-2, to advance to the round of 16.
The 12-ranked player in the ATF who is also the tournament’s 14-under top seed was set to face qualifier Rifqy Sukma Ramadhan Sumiarsa in the quarterfinals after the latter scored an upset over fifth-seed Noor Suhail Sallahudin, 6-3, 6-0.
The other QF’s pairings, meanwhile, are those of Rafli Feby Putra Tri Prasetyo versus sixth-seed Yusuke Tamaki, Indonesia’s seventh-seed Athallah Firdianto against fourth-seed Joshua Gunawan, and Indonesian second-seed Naufal Siddiq Kamaruzzaman versus Indonesia’s qualifier Yogi Ardiansyah.
Malaysia’s Christian Didier Chin currently holds the ATF no.1 spot followed by the Philippines’ Michael Francis Eala at No. 2, Korea’s Kim Jae Woo at No. 3, Pakistan’s Kaleem Syid Nofil at No. 4 and Kazakhstan’s Tasbulatov Dostanbek at No.5.