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Unus Alladin

TEENAGER Ivan Yeh Sing-yu is the SAR's sole survivor in the qualifying competition of the Salem Open tennis tournament after yesterday's first round.

 The 15-year-old, who was among 24 young Asians who attended the NIKE International Tennis Camp in Melbourne, survived the first round of the 32-man draw after defeating Britain's Andrew Lewis 6-2, 7-5.

 Yeh will need to play out of his skin if he is to progress.

 He now plays South Africa's Chris Haggard, who dumped Sweden's Kalle Flygt 6-3, 7-6 (7-1).

 Flygt is the eighth-highest ranked player in the qualifying event at 368 in the world and Haggard showed good form to oust the Swede.

 Yeh was one of two Hong Kong juniors who gained entry into the qualifying tournament via wild cards.

 The other Hong Kong wild-card entrant, Michael Wu Bing-lam, 16, was given a rude introduction to the world of professional tennis when he was thrashed 6-0, 6-0 by Italy's Stefano Pescosolido.

 Another Hong Kong player, Don Yu, also found the gap between himself and the pros too much when he was soundly beaten 6-0, 6-0 by Sweden's Fredrik Bergh.

 The elder brother of former French Open champion Michael Chang took a significant step towards reaching the tournament proper.

 Carl Chang was rarely troubled when he defeated Mexico's Bernardo Martinez 6-3, 6-3.

 Chang, who coaches his famous brother, will take on Pescosolido in the next round.

 The highest-ranked qualifier, Britain's Chris Wilkinson, dropped the second set before recovering to dispatch Sweden's Mattias Hellstrom 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

 He plays American Todd Meringoff, who also needed three sets before disposing of Frenchman Philippe Kobzos 7-5, 1-6, 6-1.

 Four qualifiers will play in tomorrow's main draw.

 Meanwhile, Taiwan took a 2-1 lead over Hong Kong after winning the doubles match in the semi-finals of the Davis Cup's Asia-Oceania Group Two tie in Taipei yesterday.

 Taiwan's Lin Bing-chao and Chen Chih-jung defeated Stephen So and Christopher Lai 6-3, 6-1, 6-1.

 Hong Kong's Melvin Tong was scheduled to play but team captain Kelvin Inge switched him for Lai.

 The opening singles on Friday were shared. Tsai Chia-yen of Taiwan defeated Hong Kong's Lai 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 before Tong levelled the score by beating Chen 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, 2-6, 8-6.

 The reverse singles will be played today.

 The winners of this tie will meet the winners of the Philippines v Thailand match in the second round.

 The Thais currently lead 2-1.

 Danai Udomchoke, 17, and 34-year-old Vittaya Samrej outplayed Robert Angelo and Bryan Juinio, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in a two-hour, 30-minute match yesterday to give Thailand the initiative.



HK's Yeh survives opening qualifier