Tennis teens secure Malaysia third place finish in Singapore Invitational Cup

KALLANG: The national squad, featuring mostly teenagers, finished third overall in the Singapore Tennis Invitational Cup (STIC) today (Feb 1) after downing Cambodia 3-0 in a playoff.

Aqil Rahiman, 15, had little difficulty beating Cambodia's Vireak Poev 6-2, 6-1 in the opening men's singles match at the Kallang Tennis Hub here.

Ashaari Zainal - the most senior player in the squad at 37 - and partner Darrshan Kumar, 17, showed no mercy against Chanmony Chheang-Rafaelis Despiegleer in the men's doubles as they scored a 6-0, 6-0 win to put Malaysia 2-0 up.

Daania Hazli, 14, then showed great determination to secure a come-from-behind 5-7, 7-5, 7-5 win over Chhinda Som in the women's singles to give Malaysia an unassailable 3-0 win.

Ashaari believes Malaysia was unlucky not to make the final.

"We have done well against Cambodia, who we beat 5-0 in the round robin stage, as well as in the playoff today," said Ashaari.

"Overall, I think we have been a bit unlucky in this tournament as we lost 3-2 to both Singapore and Indonesia in the round robin stage.

"We lost both deciding matches against them, if we had won one, we could have made the final and possibly gone on to win it.

"But personally, I am still pleased as this is a very young group of players representing Malaysia and I think it was important to give them exposure competing in a senior competition.

"Hopefully they will be able to make use of it in their upcoming junior international tournaments such as the World Under-14 Championships and Junior Davis Cup later this year."

The squad for STIC also featured Elsa Wan, 21, Mak Zooey, 14, Lim Zan Ning, 19, and Koay Hao Sheng, 26, with Mulyadi Jamal as coach.

Singapore went on to beat Indonesia 3-0 in the final.