JEDDAH — After two grueling months of highly competitive tennis, three clubs emerged champions in the six categories of the 5th Al Baik Tennis Tournament 2013 here. Garnering the most crowns was Red Sea Tennis Players (RSTP), which took the championships in categories B2, Middle Mixed (MMX) and Higher Mixed (HMX). Next in line was RPM-Renegades who took the crowns in categories C and B1, while Azizeyah Tennis Club pocketed the Category Lower Mixed (LMX) title in the finals played at the Trio Ranch tennis courts. It was a field day for Red Sea Tennis Players (RSTP) as it took three of the six titles at stake starting off with its B2 contingent RSTP-Adnan team, which defeated DJ Auto Parts 2-1 — thanks to an insurmountable lead of 26-20. Then RSTP-Tennis Pro team took the MMX title defeating Zuhair Fayez Partnership team 22-16 after a 2-1 score. RSTP-MTTS then bagged the HMX trophy with a down-the-wire win against Jeddah Ranao Tennis Club's JRTC-Benji thanks to RSTP team captain Francis Idjao and partner Domelo Gesto's 8-3 rout of JRTC's Ayman Randa and Alimbsar Umpa in the fourth set. RSTP won the first set with Lee and Jovi Tagudin's 8-2 win over Tungko and Benji Usman. JRTC then took successive sets, Alama Macapaar and Maroouf Pantaran' 8-3 over Rey Diega and Bok Gregorio, and Elias Mangca and Jun Ouano's 8-4 over Jonathan Tenorio and Cecil Llevares for a final tally of 2(23)–2(21). RPM-Renegades took the Category C championship via a 13-11 super tie-break extension win after a hard-fought battle with team Uricane-Reem Riviera which ended in a 2-2 tie after four sets. The Renegades continued their winning streak and conquered RSTP-MTTS team in Category B1 as their pair of Alex Pena and Ely Mallari stood their ground to score a 7-5 win in the fourth set against Tonton Pana and Joel De Castro to complete a 28-25 win after leading two sets to one. Team Azizeyah snatched the Category LMX crown from RSTP-MTTS after losing the first set 5-8 with Belal Gogandy and Ibrahim Akeel playing Zaid Fami Saleh and Alex Tam. Azizeyah then won the second set with Mohammed Bashamakh and Khaled Al-Nahdi over Yul Dela Cruz and Ahmad Lagman 8-3. Amer Al-Ghamdi and Mohannad Al-Ghamdi's handed Azizeyah an 8-7 tie-break win against Dondon Alcantara and Galileo Ikot to post a commanding 2-1 lead. In the fourth set, Azizeyah raced to a 6-1 lead courtesy of Awais Tariq and Mohammad Rezayath over Jonathan Contreras and Cris Balles to post an unreachable points lead. Organized and managed by the Association of Tennis Clubs in Jeddah (ASTEC) under the helm of its chairman Francis Idjao Jr. and Tournament Director Tonton Pana, this 26th ASTEC team tennis tournament was presented in partnership with Al Baik Food Systems Co. Ltd. represented by Bassam Al-Seyofi (PR Manager), Mahmoud Al-Jaber (Marketing Coordinator) and Ed Cabiedes (Branch Manager) and was supported by Deltaz Marketing (Racquet Shop) courtesy of Tony Kassis, Maher Tebakhi and Amin Malik. Also providing support were Skyfreight Forwarders, TFC The Filipino Channel and Pepsi Bugshan.
