Team Malta experienced mixed fortunes in the tennis competitions of the Small Nations Games at the Bannholz Complex today as Nick Camilleri and Elena Jetcheva both reached the quarter-finals of the singles tournament but Matthew Asciak and Kim Cassar were eliminated from the mixed doubles tournament.
Camilleri endured a positive debut in GSSE competition when he brushed aside Iceland’s Birkir Gunnarson 6-2 6-2.
The Maltese-American player was in control from the outset as he broke his opponent twice in each set to post a comfortable victory and set out a tough-looking quarter-final against no.2 seed Benjamin Balleret or San Marino’s Giacomo Zonzini.
On her part, Jetcheva also had a trouble-free passage to the next round. The lanky Bulgarian-born player conceded just one game in each set to set up a mouth-watering quarter-final clash against Monaco’s Stephanie Vogt, ranked 302 in the world.
In the mixed doubles competition, Asciak and Cassar were beaten by 7-6 6-4 by Louise-Alice Gambarini and Balleret of Monaco