JEDDAH — Team Black knocked off its rival Team White in the final stage of the round 3 of the Beat the Heat Tennis Tournament at the King Abdulaziz University Sports Complex recently to complete its comeback trail from 52-54 total points deficit after the first round. However, it was cumulatively still behind 102-115 after the second round, yet struggling 129-136 in the middle of the third round. Then, it suddenly rose in a mighty power to edge past its rival and dumped it at the end of the second phase of the third round with the automatic winner score of 165, which is one point above the maximum possible total points of 164 that its opponent could muster at the end of the game. The championship games boiled down to the last and fifth doubles under Category B2 between Team Black's Waymor Carmelotes/Roman Alcantara against Team White's Marlon Pagsanjan/Mario Betrorio, with Black taking control of the game after a tense come-from-behind rallying points 0-2, 1-3 before they nailed down the White pair at 3 points and prevailed till 5-3. Adding up the total 31 points output of Team Black in the previous first to fourth doubles, their end total points came to 165 as against Team White's likely maximum of 164 (sum of 136+20+8). Team Black started the day with its first doubles of Category C, Mashur Jamiri/Ariel Domingo going up against Team White's Eman Usman/Sherwin Nervais losing a close game at 7-8 after a tiebreaker that went 8-7 in favor of White's pair. Oca Lovitos and Cizzner Carascal reversed the trend for Team Black in the second doubles, getting through catch-up games to 1-1, 2-2, 4-4 before edging past Team White's Mike Amerol and Rolly Saldana at 6-4 and 7-6 until the tiebreaker that ended 8-6 for Black. In the third set, Bernie Soguilon and Pol Fernandez displayed their best combination of plays in the games so far with penetrating baseline drives that kept the net-attacking games of Team White's pair, Cesar Quilenderino and Gary Bautro out of sync to finish off the second set with their biggest win at 8-1. In the fourth set, Pierre Abou Toumo of Team Black came up with his biggest win in the tournament so far with 8-4 decision in partnership with Allan Mabini against the Team White doubles of Fernan Fermin and Clark Maldo. The Black's doubles also dismissed opponent's lead of 1-0 and 2-1, before carving out their own leads of 5-2, 7-3 and then took the game away at 8-4. The Beat the Heat Tennis Tournament is organized by the club officers of SPTC led by Chairman Ariel Domingo. Team White is managed by Marlon Pagsanjan, whereas Team Black is captained by Waymor Carmelotes.
