REIGNING PCA Open champion AJ Lim continued to make heads turn as he overpowered local bet Hanyi Liu, 6-1, 6-3, to advance to the quarterfinals of the ITF M15 Tianjin Tournament in China on Wednesday,
Lim’s dominant win was a fitting follow-up to a 7-5, 3-0 (ret.) victory over another local bet, Sheng Tang, in the opener of the ITF Men’s World Tennis Tour event.
Backed by sportsman Jean Henri Lhuillier and Cebuana Lhuillier Sports, Lim now awaits to face the winner of the clash between another Chinese bet Zhenxiong Dong and Kazakhstan’s Grigoriy Lomakin.
Lim stamps class
A former world No. 12 in the ITF juniors singles, Lim, 25, showed great composure in a tight opening set before stamping his class in the second set.
The current ranked No.1 men’s singles player in the country is coming off back-to-back title wins in Lucena and Butuan in performances that served as an added fuel to his title campaign abroad – first in China.
Lim showed no let-up and went off to a hot start against Liu, a former No. 719 in ATP rankings. He scored the first four points and kept the pace to take the opening set in a rousing fashion.
Liu tried to put up a fight in the second set after forging a 3-3 deadlock but Lim, sensing blood in the water, went for the kill and scored the next three points to claim the victory.
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