JEDDAH: Jollibee claimed three of six final matches, as only teams Shelter and NCB stood in their way to spoil their bid to sweep all the titles in the just-concluded 1st Top Cup Tennis Challenge. Shelter grabbed Categories C and B2 while NCB snatched Category MMX in the fifth and final set as it proved to have the steadier pair in the decisive set. With their wins in Categories LMX, HMX and B1/B, Jollibee became the most successful campaigner in the recent tournament – conquering Lacoste-JBTP with a 3-1 victory in the LMX category, and scoring a 2-0 sweep against the same team in the HMX category as Lacoste-JBTP's gamble to default the second set back-fired as it dropped the first set leaving the match just academic. It was an all-Jollibee finals in B1/B category when its Team-4 played against Team-5 with the latter crushing its sister-team with a 3-0 final score. A different story took place for Jollibee in Category C, as Shelter swept Jollibee in straight sets for the title, while in B2 Category a tough match developed as Jollibee led 2-1 by winning sets 1 and 3. A double default in the fourth set almost buried Shelter leading to the fifth and final set which shifted to points system. Shelter needed to win the fifth set in order to tie the match, while Jollibee needed only a score of 5 in the set to win the championship. As the match boiled down to tennis ability and control of nerves, Shelter eventually got the better deal, when it won 8-3 to tie the match and lead with a 27-26 total aggregate score, good enough to secure the championship. Moving over to Category MMX finals pitting teams NCB against Jollibee, everything was level at 2-2 up to the fourth set, as Shelter won the first set (Eric Diaz/Souhail Hafez def. Neil Pulan/Carmelo Nery 8-3) and second sets (Melvin/Danny Canoy def. Bonnie Zafra/Hussam I-Basha 8-4). Unruffled, Jollibee countered in the third set with Bien Villeta/Ramon Monterde subduing Loi Escabusa/Joel Magno in an 8-7 tie-breaker. A default win by Jollibee's Dondon Alcantara/Ron Valdez in the fourth set against Joemari/Joey Licyayo extended the match into a deciding fifth set, that was controlled by the Ricky Mediavillo/Lito Mosquera pair who dumped Joel De Castro/Rey Villaraza with a convincing 8-4 triumph to claim the championship for NCB. In the ASTEC officers fun games, the Dark Horse team of VC-Operations Romy Detera emerged as champion as it defeated the Solid Team of Adviser Francis Idjao. Other members of the Dark Horse team were Froi Malapad, Ronnie Santos, Alnijar Jarawi, Ramil Abdua, Ronald Ricardo, August Talavera and Tonton Pana. Organized and managed by the Association of Tennis Clubs (ASTEC) Jeddah, this tournament was supported by Al-Kanaah Trading Group, distributors in the Kingdom of Top Cup (France) ready-made hot drinks, as the main sponsor. Co-sponsors were Winalite Love Moon, Skyfreight Forwarders and Prince/Deltaz Marketing. __
