JEDDAH, 30 May 2003 — A colorful parade of 42 participating teams and tennis clubs vying for five different categories formally kicked off the grand opening of the 8th Seiko-AFTPA Team Tennis Challenge before a jam-packed crowd at the Al Bilad Hotel tennis courts over the weekend.
The welcome speech was made by former chairman Boy Cornejo then POLO and OWWA Medical Officer Dr. Ramon Moreno delivered a very inspirational speech on behalf of Consul General Kadatuan P. Usop, lauding the efforts of AFTPA organizing committee for their noteworthy contribution to the community.
The 45-day tournament officially sponsored by Al Hussaini & Co., the exclusive distributor of Seiko watches in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is organized and managed by the All Filipino Tennis Players Association (AFTPA), under the leadership of its current chairman Romy Bugarin.
The tournament will be governed by the new point scoring system where a total cumulative scoring will be applied. As such, the total score of all matches will determine the winner and the eventual champions.
Adjudged the winners in best in team uniforms were ALJ-Toyota in category C and NCB in category B2. Joanne dela Chica was unanimously declared the muse of the tournament while Kaitlin Abrantes was the winner for the best mascot of the tournament. Gerry Alcantara administered the oath of sportsmanship while Dr. Ramon Moreno assisted by former chairman Boy Cornejo and other AFTPA officers did the ceremonial toss to formally open the tournament.
Leading the pack of participating teams in category C are NCB, Saudi Oger, Green Farms and SG.
Also participating are, Batang Industrial, Bassamh/Goody, ASTEC, JPTC/Siyanco, Tennis Starlet, TPST/ABV, RR, G-Force, ALJ-Toyota, FTG, Al Madj and Cabalen. Category B2 listed SG, RR, NCB, KAIA/SRL, Zuhair Fayez, Elaf, ASTEC, ITEC and Seiko-Titan.
Participating teams in the Mixed Category includes APO, NCB, Saudi Oger, Siyanco, SG, Seiko-Kinetic and Express Point-Cabalen. Category B1 was joined by APO, ASTEC, Jaspers, SG, Al Dhalawi and Seiko-Sportstura while ASTEC, Jaspers, SG and Theragran-M completed the cast of the B and B+ category.
In category B and B+, SG hammered ASTEC 3-0. Ferdie Gaviola and Ronnie Belga thumped Roland Santos and Rodel Rina in a nail-biting first set.
The SG tandem broke Rina’s serve to take an early lead but the ASTEC pair quickly recovered breaking Gaviola’s serve as well to level the game at 1-1. Santos and Rina managed to hold and break serve to take a commanding 6-1 lead but failed to maintain their momentum.
It was an exciting tie breaker as both pairs managed to hold serve until Santos and Rina finally succumbed to a 10-12 tie breaker for an 8-7 (12-10) final tally for SG. In the second set, SG’s Danny Aguinaldo and Gil Baylon made it easy over Ronnie Sulit and Paul Demetrio with an 8-5 score to lead 2-0.
It was a bitter defeat for ASTEC as Sonny Manangkil, who was paired with Doddie Eligio, failed to show up allowing Bobby Esquivel and Mar Barro a maximum 8-0 win for a 24-12 final SG tally.
In category C matches, Batang Industrial got the better of Friday Tennis Group as they could not match the more illustrious Batang Industrial team winning five straight sets for a 40-15 win-loss games final score. NCB hand handily beat G-Force winning 34-26.
