Malta’s young tennis players failed to maintain Tuesday’s opening day’s momentum and were eliminated yesterday after some disappointing results - and performances.

Matthew Asciak, Elaine Genovese and Lisa Camenzuli were all bundled out of the second round.

It is now up to Lisa Camenzuli and Sanya Jukic to try and win a doubles medal as they play their first women’s doubles match today.

In the men’s singles, Matthew Asciak had a good start against Iceland’s Arnar Sigurson, but the latter soon took command and raced to a 6-2 first set victory to take the lead in blazing sunshine.

In the second set, he started well, breaking Sigurson and giving the Maltese present some hope of a recovery, but the Icelandic player hit back immediately to draw level at 1-1. After reaching 3-3, Sigurson broke Asciak again to take the lead and then won the next two matches in succession to complete his victory.

In the women’s event, Elaine Genovese failed to show Tuesday’s form and had to concede defeat against a superior Stephanie Vogt of Liechtenstein who won comfortably 6-1, 6-1.

Later, Lisa Camenzuli missed a good opportunity to advance to the semi-finals after losing 2-6, 6-2 3-6 against Marina Novak, also of Liechtenstein.

Having lost the first set 6-2 after quite a strong start, Camenzuli levelled the tie by winning the second set comfortably 6-2. In the third set, she was leading 3-0 before she allowed her opponent to hit back. Novak, in fact, won the following six matches without reply to reach the semi-finals.

In the men’s doubles, Asciak and Matija Pecotic lost to S. Galvani and D. Vicini of San Marino 7-5, 6-4 and also lost the possibility of reaching the semi-final, though this was by no means a totally disappointing result.

Dr David Farrugia Sacco, general secretary of the Federation told The Malta Independent that they had never expected the youngsters to advance more than they did here, although perhaps, they had high hopes that Lisa Camenzuli would have advanced to the last four yesterday.

He said they still believed the youngsters will continue to show progress and will certainly be stronger in two years’ time.