JEDDAH — Team Orange's Bernie Soguilon and Choi Argarin had a taste of comfort with a 2-0 lead in the early going of their match against Uly Bartolata and Mario Betorio of Team Red after the first game, having their way in the 2nd and 3rd games with Bernie held serve at 40-15 followed by a quick break-serve at 15-40 against Team Red's Mario Betorio in the 3rd game. Thereafter, taking off from 1-2 deficit, Team Red's Betorio and Bartolata imposed their authority from the 4th to 7th games; breaking the serve of the Orange pair twice and holding their own serves twice to breakaway up to 5-2. The Red tandem never looked back after that, even as the Orange pair locked horns against them with an exchange of hold-serve games, getting as close as 3-5, 4-6, and 4-7 in the last. And that was all the Orange team could contain as the Red team dictated the tempo throughout the match, which ended 8-4 for the Team Red. In the only other match of the day, Team Orange's Nilo Gamba and Nasser Cayquep were on fire and jumpstarted with a 3-0 lead against Team Red's Ali Callanta and Fernan Fermin with a break serve against Callanta's service game in the opening game of the 2nd set. Nasser's well-placed serves tightened up their net-attacking drives, backed up with zooming baseline shots past the Red pair, and nailed down the 2nd game almost without resistance at 40-15, to make it 2-0. The Orange doubles continued their barrage of winners on return shots against the serves of Team Red's Fermin and finished off the 3rd frame with 15-40 break-serves to go up 3-0. Callanta and Fermin fought back and broke the serve of Gamba in the 4th game, followed by a successful service game of Callanta in the 5th to close in at 2-3. But the Orange pair also notched up a string of 2 winning games in the following 7th and 8th frames to maintain their 3-point lead at 5-2. Nasser Cayquep's formidable serves stayed unbroken, and the Red pair failed to close the gap after the scores of 5-6 and 6-7. Team Red's Callanta and Fermin got the better of baseline shot rallies but came short of closing the gap from 4-5 deficit onward. The booming serves of Nasser in the 14th game did it for Team Orange with an 8-6 win. The overall team match-ups ended at 1-1 set, with 3 sets more to play on the rescheduled dates. This tennis tournament is organized and managed by SPTC, with Marlon Pagsanjan coordinating the tournament on behalf of Ben Micu, the tournament director, with other officers of the club being led in acting capacity by Roy Timtiman (club vice chairman for internal affairs). The Technical Committee is composed of Jun Tomas, Oca Lovitos, and Vic Rebong. This in-house tournament is financed by the club, with individual donors such as Corly Obtinalla, who voluntarily provides the trophies.
