Cesar Q. Quilenderino JEDDAH — The Samahang Pinoy Tennis Club (SPTC), opened summer tennis tournament, dubbed as “The HeatWave Challenge”, at the Sports Complex of King Abdulaziz University in Jamea-Sulamaniyah here recently. The tournament format calls for a preliminary round-robin competition to determine the seeding of the teams before going into the playoff semifinal phase. Top ranked team will be pitted against the No. 4 and the No. 2 against No. 3. The winners of the crossover match-ups will fight it out for the championship title. Also at stake are trophies for the champion team and the finalist. Medals are to be awarded to the other two surviving teams. The 36 players are grouped into four teams of nine players each. Each team is required to compete in 5-set match-ups composed of 4 doubles and 1 singles. During last Friday's opening team competition, Team Orange drew first blood versus Team Green in the first set as the combination of Vic Rebong and Nilo Gamba of Team Orange overcame a seesaw battle against Team Green's Mashur Jamiri and Clark Maldo, with an exhausting 8-7 win that was stretched by a tightly contested tiebreaker that ultimately went 7-4 for Team Orange. After a 3-0 lead by Team Green's Mashur Jamiri and Clark Maldo, Team Orange's Vic Rebong and Nilo Gamba fought back in games 4, 5 and 6 to level the games at 3-3. Mashur Jamiri and Clark Maldo regained advantage at 5-4 and then at 7-5 after grabbing games 7 and 8, then 10 and 11, but Team Orange's Vic Rebong and Nilo Gamba held on with their gritty plays, broke serve and held serves in the last two games, and never looked back to stay ahead till the 8-7 finish. Team Green's Romy Sorra and Norwin Catipay carried their team in equal footing at 1-1 after a lopsided 8-1 win in the second set over the error-prone games of Team Orange's Bhoy Isuga and Oca Lovitos, who struggled with frustrating groundstrokes. In the third set, Team Orange's Jun Thomas paired with Hajji Pilongo and used his experience to win over Roman Alcantara and Nasser Cayquep of Team Green. Easing out from 0-1 deficit they surged ahead for good till 7-5, and finished the game at 8-6 – that pushed Team Green 2-1 sets lead over Team Orange. Lito Bentulan of Team Orange leveled the sets at his own will, took away the credits in the singles match in the fourth set after hammering out a 4-0 lead. But then lost control of the next two successive games to let Team Green's Ben Hasim Salabin getting close to 2-4. However, he denied his opponent any chance in the rest of the games to shut off for a 6-2 finish. This tournament is organized and managed by SPTC, with the objectives of strengthening physical fitness and endurance limit as well as to learn and exercise the right preparation against any extreme outdoor temperature on the court. The present set of SPTC officers for “The HeatWave Challenge” are: Pol Fernandez (chairman), Roy Timtiman (vice chairman for internal affairs), Lito (VC for external affairs), Aman Usman (secretary), JM Bravo (treasurer), Ariel Domingo (auditor), Nilo Gamba Jr (press relation director), Mario Betorio (business manager) and Bien Micu (tournament director). The technical committee members: Jun Tomas, Oca Lovitos and Vic Rebong. Club advisers: Cesar Quilenderino, Gary Bautro, Ric Maulion and Romy Sorra.
