Saidatul Saadiah Mohammad came close to winning the double in the Girls’ Under-16 Group A AFFIN-100PLUS Junior Elite Tour (1st leg) 2024 when she won the Singles but lost out in the Doubles in the finals that were held at the Negeri Sembilan BA Hall in Seremban today.
In the final of the Girls’ U16 Singles Saidatul Saadiah, who will turn 16-years-old tomorrow, showed plenty of spunk to survive a three-set battle by a resolute Hasyni Devi Sahathevan from Johor.
As the tournament’s top seed Saidatul Saadiah showed that her straight-set victories in the earlier rounds were no fluke when she took the first set 21-12 before conceding the second set to a close 18-21 to Hasyni.
However, the third and final side would prove pivotal when Saidatul Saadiah wrapped the crown with a 21-15 win.
But that failure to win in straight sets as she had done in the earlier rounds of the Girls’ U16 Singles, meant that Saidatul Saadiah would be fully tested in the final of the Girls’ Doubles.
And it showed when Saidatul Saadiah alongside partner Lim Ke Xuan – the No. 1 seed in the Girls’ U16 Doubles – failed to get a grip against the unheralded duo of Hasyni Devi-Navina Nagarajan.
Saidatul Saadiah-Ke Xuan may have taken the first match 21-14 but Hasyni-Navina just had a tad more in the tank as they went on to take the next two sets 21-15, 23-21 for the Girls’ U16 Doubles title.
In Selangor in Group B of the AFFIN-100PLUS Junior Elite Tour (1st leg) 2024, unseeded Teoh Sue Mei made it a string of scalping the top seeds when she dumped ranked 3/4th Chanice Tan Ying Xuan from Selangor 21-15, 21-9 in just under half an hour to win the Girls’ U16 Singles title.
En route, the 16-year-old from Kuala Lumpur had beaten ranked 3/4th Joinne Lee in the quarterfinals and then second-seeded Nur Aina Maisarah Muhamad Hatta from Perak in the semifinals.
In Putrajaya in Group C of the AFFIN-100PLUS Junior Elite Tour (1st leg) 2024, Loshini Ramesh delivered an upset in the final of the Girls’ U16 Singles when she beat top seed Nurin Zahirah Haizal for the crown.
The 15-year-old from Putrajaya did not need to go through the drama of playing in the rubber when she made sure of the title by taking the first set 21-18 before maintaining her composure to take the second set 24-22 in just over half an hour.
Earlier in the semifinals, Loshini had beaten second-seeded Ooi Yu Han from Kedah in a duel that lasted just 25 minutes.
