Final 8, Day3. Jakarta’s semi-final line-up complete. Friday’s matches for a place in the finals

JAKARTA – Indonesia, Japan and Australia have qualified for the girls’ semi-finals, while Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan will compete in the boys’ semi-finals. Completing the line-up at the FIP Junior Asia Padel Cup, currently taking place in Jakarta, is Iran, who have qualified in both categories. On Friday 13 November, these eight teams will compete for a place in Saturday’s finals, where the titles will be at stake. Teams that did not finish in the top two of their groups will no longer be in contention for the titles, but will still compete to determine the final standings: fifth to eighth place in the boys’ category and fifth to sixth place in the girls’ category.

 

BOYS On the final day of the group stage, Kuwait defeated Australia 3-0, with victories for the pairs Zainal/Bineedan, Tifouni/Hashem Almazeedi and Reda/Qabazard. This result saw Kuwait finish top of Group A with a perfect record. In the semi-finals, they will face Kazakhstan, who finished second in Group B after securing a 3-0 victory over Lebanon on Day 3. Iran topped Group B, having won all nine matches across their three ties so far. On the final day of the group stage, they also recorded a 3-0 victory over the United Arab Emirates. In the semi-finals, the Iranian NextGen team will face Saudi Arabia, who secured their place in the last four with a 2-1 victory over defending champions Japan. The decisive points came from the pairs Hakeem/Zaitouni and Alabdulbaqi/Alsulaiman.

 

GIRLS The young players representing hosts Indonesia also made their mark, securing a place in the semi-finals in front of their home crowd. On Day 3, Indonesia defeated Thailand 2-1 to claim second place in Group B. Azzahra/Hidayat won the opening match, before Thailand’s Iuchi/Kaewka levelled the tie. The decisive victory by Santara/Rosejana secured Indonesia’s place in the semi-finals, where they will face Iran, winners of Group A. The other semi-final for a place in the title match will see Japan take on Australia, who claimed second place in Group B with a 3-0 victory over the Philippines, fielding Daisy Ferguson/Smith, Garner/Jonhs and Collins/Raven.

 

DAY 4 SCHEDULE The action will begin at 9 am local time with the girls’ competition, featuring the two semi-finals for places 1-4, Iran-Indonesia and Japan-Australia, as well as the Philippines-Thailand match, which will determine fifth place. The boys’ competition will take centre stage in the afternoon, from 2 pm local time, with the semi-finals Iran-Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan-Kuwait, both decisive in determining the finalists. Japan-Lebanon and United Arab Emirates-Australia will also be played to determine the final standings from fifth to eighth place. All matches are available on the International Padel Federation’s YouTube channel.