Katherine Ip Cheung and Lam Wing-lun were crowned champions after a tough, three-week battle at the 61st Chinese Recreation Club (CRC) Open Tennis Tournament. Katherine won the girls' singles title, while Wing-lun took the boys' singles crown last month. Wing-lun teamed up with Yau Long-fung to win the boys' doubles title. The CRC Open is one of the major tournaments on the local tennis calendar. In the final, Katherine - a student at Diocesan Girls' School - crushed her schoolmate Ki Yan-tung 6-1, 6-3. This was Katherine's first CRC title after losing in the semi-finals last year. 'I am really happy to win because this is one of the biggest tennis tournaments in Hong Kong,' she said Katherine, 14, is ranked number five in Hong Kong while Yan-tung is number seven. Katherine said she had played Yan-tung several times and all of them were tough matches except the latest one. 'The matches between me and Ki are tough battles, but this match was not as competitive because Ki had just finished her HKCEE and was not at her best,' Katherine said. In the boys' singles final, Kevin Wong Chun-hun was leading Wing-lun 4-1 in the third set when he had to retire with a foot injury. Chun-hun's withdrawal handed the title to his opponent. Wing-lun, who is a full-time athlete, said: 'I am 18 years old and this was the last year Icould play in the student category so it meant a lot for me to win both the singles and doubles titles. 'But I felt kind of bad even though I won the singles title. It's like I didn't win it with my performance.'
