JEDDAH, 12 March 2004 — Pre-game favorite KAIA–Unasco team stumbled to a 1-2 defeat and were pushed by SG to the bottom of team standings in mixed-category B-plus/B/B1 last weekend at the Albilad Hotel. The loss stacked the top-seeded KAIA-Unasco to a similar 1-2 overall record in a 4-way tie for the 3rd and 4th slots into the next round of the Malaysia Airlines Tennis Cup being held at the Albilad Hotel tennis courts and the Sheraton Hotel tennis courts. KAIA Unasco have to win their last 2 matches to advance – otherwise they would be in for a 3-way roller-coaster for the last semifinal slot.SG’s first doubles, Danny Aguinaldo and Rommel Cortes, stemmed youthful Al Ijiran fire, then dumped all the service games of Rexie Hermano that resulted in a 2-8 score for the KAIA doubles Ijiran-Hermano. They broke SG’s Aguinaldo once, but it came late in 9th game. But the SG team pummeled the last serves of Ijiran at love to grab the first set. Beny Deleon and Francis Idjao of KAIA-Unasco got a surprise opposition in the second from SG’s Alam Chaudry-Buddy Linaming, as they lost 5-8. Rhodel Rina-Dado Ignacio salvaged the third by beating SG’s Romy Paraiso-Ferdie Gaviola, 8-5, to tally the match 1-2.
Jaform-Hempel kept a tight grip on their top ranking in the B-plus/B/B1 category and dashed the hope of Theragram-M winning 2-1. The defeat put Theragram in a 4-way logjam with KAIA-Unasco and 2 other teams. Boy Urquia and Jun Amancio scored an 8-5 win for Jaforms-Hempel over Danny Ignacio and Bong Andales of Elaf Cargo. Raymond Sy and Earp Casilac made it 2-0 Jaforms-Hempel by scoring an 8-4 victory against Elaf’s Nilo Loremia-Henry Reyes. Totie Alfonso and Miko Calauag beat Rudy Palustre-Nemie Melencio 8-7
A closely contested match under the mixed-category B-plus/B/B1 between Hempel-Jaforms and Theragram-M by nipping Theragram-M 2-1. Jovy Abella and Robert Lukban of Theragram-M whittled down a 7-2 lead of Hempel-Jaforms’ JR Cablao-Benjie Usman, but their assault after 7-all was suppressed at the tiebreaker that ended at 4-7 for Jaforms-Hempel. Regie Sonosa and Paul Demetrio of Jaforms waged an uphill battle against Theragram’s Rommel Villanueva-Teody Bea, but failed to overhaul their 2-4, 3-6, 4-7 deficits and exited at 4-8 for Theragram-M. Lito Dumas and Ricky Sabate of Hempel-Jaforms proved steadier than Roland Santos-Sonny Manangkil of Theragram-M to nail down an 8-6 finish. At Sheraton Hotel tennis courts, SPTC-Jameel reaffirmed its hold on the top in category B2 by beating NCB-B2 with 4-1 sets tally. In category C, Siemen-C of Hadji Coza stood firm and fought back from 1-2 sets down, to overcome Hidada-C with a 3-2 decision.
Malaysia Airlines is the principal sponsor of this tournament with Racquet Shop (a division of Delta Marketing) as secondary sponsor. Other co-sponsors are: Farnas Cargo Services thru Gilmore Garcia, La Parilla Restaurant, Cali Drinks/Blackstallion Trading Co., El Gusto Sarisari Store, Albilad Hotel, and TFC (True Filipino Channel).
