The Association of Tennis Clubs in Jeddah (ASTEC) successfully opened its 23rd tennis tournament at the Al-Bilad Hotel tennis courts last week. This initial foray of the bi-annual event by ASTEC signaled the start of tennis season in Jeddah for the year 2012. The usual parade of all participating teams preceded the opening address of Bob Wilson, Recreation Manager for Al-Bilad Hotel. ASTEC Acting Chairman Romy Detera followed by thanking the sponsors, venue host Al-Bilad Hotel, ASTEC officers, and all the participants, and Deltaz Marketing/Prince, for providing valuable support to the event. Special awards were given to the teams with the best uniforms – Saudia City Tennis Club for Class C, Saudia Catering for Class LMX, ELAF Team for Class B2 and DJ Auto Parts for Category MMX. Opening day matches featured the cliffhanger game of team RSTP turning the tide against the rampaging team SCTC Pepsi-1 in the B2 category and a lop-sided game of team Uricane blanking team Shelter in Category C. Initially, RSTP looked a bit stunned as SCTC Pepsi-1 took the first two sets with wins by SCTC's Ramil Abdua-Amin Paraji over Vic Alvaran-Ron Valdez via an 8-7 tie-break followed by Francis Balde-Abdo Al-Arabi duo punishing Wayne Cruz-Agot Delas Alas pair with an 8-1 beating to lead 2-0. Afterwards, RSTP team captain Edwin Potestad teamed up with Galvin Collantes and shattered the Ronnie Santos-Efren Bulatao tandem, 8-2, that made match score 1-2. Then, RSTP's Ramon Monterde-August Talavera displayed nerves of steel in overcoming the pressure as they shackled Sol Bartlome-Ernie Capito, 8-3, which tied the match score at 2-sets each. As per tournament rules, total set points decides the winner of the match and RSTP emerged triumphant with a score of 24 points against 21 of SCTC. In the other match, team Uricane unleashed an exceptional game with sterling display without dropping a set as Ricky Salazar-Dante Gabrillo won over HTTP's Atoy-Marlon, 8-6. It was followed by Boy-Jonathan Cerezo scoring an 8-2 win over Boyet-Jess. The third set win came from Nerio Batestil-Cats, beating Agot-Russel that set the kill and Eben Capalad-Joe Espitu responded to seal the match with an 8-6 win over Larry-Fred for the 4-0 score. This tournament is organized and managed by the Association of Tennis Clubs, Jeddah (ASTEC) with the support of Deltaz Marketing (Prince).
