ELAF Group, ABTC and Sarimanok bag titles in Astec tourney

ELAF Group team reigned supreme in the LMX category in the 25th ASTEC Team Tennis Tournament 2013 after it defeated rivals RSTP. Sarimanok defended the category MMX title beating DJ Auto Parts while ABTC dominated finals opponent RSTP for a straight sets victory in category B2.
A shaky start and a first set 5-8 loss by Gerry “Cats” Catalan and Arvin Mendoza against Cris Balles and Jonathan Contreras did not deter ELAF to fight back and win the championship in the finals match RSTP.
Coming back with the deadly combination of Marlon Pagsanjan and Mario Betorio, who controlled the second set with an 8-2 win against a stunned Adnan and Alex Tam, ELAF swiftly tied the score at 1-1. Then Ramil Abdua and William Abella essayed yet another good game winning over Ron Valdez and Ahmad Lagman 8-3 to put ELAF in the lead at 2-1 with an overwhelming eight-point advantage.
Going into the fourth set, ELAF needed only to score a point which Miller Narvas and Noel Ugalde took at 1-0 against Galvin Collantes and Joel Quimpo of RSTP to end the match and declare ELAF champion in the LMX category much to the delight of team captain Jun Atienza and reserve player Bernie Soguilon.
In the MMX category finals, Sarimanok raced to a 2-0 lead as it took the first set with an 8-4 win by Alama Tucalo and Michael Mohammad against DJ Auto Parts’ Abdul Al-Arabi and Ben Consolacion followed by the 8-2 conquest by Ayman Randa and Moh’d Noor Hadji Halil over Ricky Delgado and Carlo Guese in the second set. In the third set, Al Manarandong and Sammy Macapaar lost 6-8 to Ahmed Sholeh and Marlon Ordono to disrupt the Sarimanok rampage but with only a point needed in the fourth set to win the match, team captain Nash Mangotara with partner Zaim Umpa did not dally and scored the 1-point needed to win against Ramil Abdua and Sandy Dalit to bag the championship.
Ace Breakers Tennis Club (ABTC) learned from their mistake in the previous conference and this time made sure they’ll win. And win they did in straight sets against RSTP.
First set was an 8-4 in favor of Ramil and Sol Bartolome against Ron Valdez and Agot Delas Alas followed by the 8-6 win of Egay Go and Waleed Batestil over Galvin Collantes and Vic Alvaran and the 8-7 tiebreak singles win by Nilo Borata against Majed Bukhari to give ABTC its first championship in ASTEC tournaments. The fourth set with pairs Gilbert Bruno and Podin Dianalan of ABTC pitted against August Talavera and Wayne Cruz for RSTP was no longer played.
In category C, JRTC-ANTA won the championship. Farouk Salacop (captain), Ali Largado, Rajalodin Sultan, Yusoph Cassan, Alexander Modi, Michael and Nick Catimbang are the team members. Category B1 was won by Red Sea Tennis Players (RSTP) represented by Al Manarandong, Alama Tucalo, Benny Lazarte, Jojo Aran, Aiman Randa, Ramon Monterde, Domelo Gesto and Randy Martin (captain). In the HMX category, Red Sea Tennis Players (RSTP) took home the title with the team composed of Randy Martin, Francis Idjao (captain), Carmelo Nery, Rey Diega, Marcial Barro, Dilson Autentico, Juvy Tagudin and Domelo Gesto.
Organized by Association of Tennis Clubs (ASTEC) Jeddah, this team tennis tournament played at the Al-Bilad Hotel and Sheraton Hotel tennis courts is supported by Deltaz Marketing (Racquet Shop) through Tony Kassis, Maher Tebakhi and Amin Malik.