JEDDAH — Last week of knockout rounds in the ongoing 8th AlBaik Team Tennis Tournament, being held at the Trio-Ranch Country Club, witnessed some favorites toppled while other category former champions crushed their opponents to cruise into the finals. Elaf Group upset Jeddah Ranao Tennis Club (JRTC), group leader in Middle Mix (B1/B2) Category, via a winner-take-all fourth set. Elaf's tandems of Cats Catalan/Ricky Salazar and August Talavera/Rey Tablang took the first and second sets on a tense tie-breaking score of 8-7, allowing the team just a 2-point advantage going into the third set. JRTC's pair of Jalil Ompong/Faizal Lantong easily disposed of their rivals by taking the next set 8-4 to keep their hopes alive. Despite feeling the pressure in the fourth set both pairs showed their determination to win for their respective teams as it became a see-saw battle for the upper-hand, which eventually went 8-5 in favor of Elaf's tandem of Marlon Pagsanjan/Nilo Salvedia to clinch a finals berth in this category. In the other bracket, ABTC team was set to score another upset with its first two-set advantage (8-6, 8-5), giving away the third set to Saudia City's (SCTC) Von Daligdig/Michael Landrito, before squandering their lead into the fourth set with a 6-8 loss to SCTC's Ricky Delgado/Ramil Abdua and a final one-point advantage (2/27, 2/26) for SCTC which will now face Elaf in the finals of the Middle Mix category. As can be seen from the results of the semifinals in B2 and Lower Mix (B2/C), Uricane Tennis Club (UTC), playing under the banner of Issham International, is set to defend its titles by narrowly edging out its rivals in both categories. In the Lower Mix and B2, UTC Team captain Ronnie Organo, playing in the fourth set, needed only 1 and 2 game-points respectively, to seal its place in the finals in both the categories. In the Lower Mix, UTC will face rival SGS Tennis Racquet Club, which earlier defeated JRTC-Webb, for the championship plum. UTC, however, will face a tougher opponent in Category B2 as Hidada Tennis Club blasted SCTC in straight sets 3-0 to claim the other finals berth. SCTC's back-to-back losses in the men's division in categories Lower Mix and B2 were avenged by its Ladies Division tennisters, who emerged champions in Friday's finals event, after subduing its opponents Jeddah International School (JISTC) in straight sets 3-0 in Higher Mix (B1/B2) and 2-1 in Lower Mix (B2/C). Astec (Association of Tennis Clubs in Jeddah) will take a two-day break to re-group in preparation for the finals events for the men's division in all categories during the weekend. This 40-day tennis event is being held in partnership with AlBaik Food Express and co-sponsored by Deltaz Marketing, Sky Freight Forwarders and Qatar Airways.
