JEDDAH, 29 March — Hempel-Jaforms continued to derail their opponents and registered their third win in four outings en route to the semifinals in Category B1. One of the favorites for the crown, they finally had their way in the ongoing Seiko-AFTPA Year Opening Team Tennis Tournament with the games now shifted to the Al Bilad Hotel Tennis Courts.
Hempel-Jaforms found the winning recipe and flaunted championship form once again and walked away with a surprisingly hard-fought battle against the reigning champions APO. Hempel’s Butch Manere had to use his guile and cool temper to win the opening singles against the hard-hitting Ronnie Belga in a marathon battle of wits and skilled tennis and raced to an 8-6 victory to wrap up the set. Remy Mamuntag and Adi Banuelos pulled even with a facile 8-4 win against Charlito Lazaga and Stephen Maradan. APO’s new recruit, Gil Baylon took advantage of the lackluster Venus Layoso and easily defeated Layoso 8-1. Trailing 2-1, Jaforms team kept their hopes alive when APO’s pair of Neph Rosco and Rommel Cortez failed to show up allowing Jun Amancio and Raymund Sy a maximum of 8-0 win to even the match.
In the deciding fifth set, Jaform’s Benjie Usman, cool as ever, struggled to subdue feisty Rommel Villanueva. The game was a nip-and-tuck battle midway into the game but Villanueva appeared to have problems finding his rhythm and broke serve to trail 5-7. Serving for the match, Usman came out scorching the court with well-placed volleys and groundstrokes to win an 8-6 game and the match.
In another B1 match, SKAB regained solo leadership midway into the elimination round with a hard earned victory over Seiko-Kinetic 3-2. Lefty Ruben Rosario was fully in control of the game as Mustafa Hassan was unable to find his rhythm and was scrambling to recover every shots before he finally yielded with an 8-2 margin. Kinetic’s Gerry Alcantara and Nestor Sorosoro have all things their way as they convincingly defeated Nonie Fayo and Paul Lauchengco 8-4 to split the first two sets. SKAB took back the lead with the youthful Jimboy Jimena winning against Hussam Salahi 8-4. Romy Legaspi and Ed Narvaez took the earlier games in the fourth set but Romy Torres and Art Simene suddenly broke down in such an inappropriate moment to post a convincing 8-4 win to seal the match. Moshen Yousuf failed to show up in the fifth set and lost by default to Sukri Boshar 8-0.
Meanwhile, with Hempel-Jaform’s astonishing win against APO, the outcome virtually changes the championship hopefuls. Seiko-Kinetic on the other hand sailed through to the semi finals by virtue of win-over-the-other rule knocking APO out of the race. Hempel-Jaforms will square off with Seiko-Kinetic anew in the semifinals while SKAB will be facing a strong challenge against Saudi Divers for the championship crown.
In Category B2, JPTC-Siyanco maintained their grip for the semi final slot with a thrilling win over Saudia City Knights. In the first doubles, Medz Mabang and George Bornales repulsed the belated rally and handed Ricky Pasturan and Jocl Irasusta a hard-earned 8-7 (7-3) tiebreaker.
