Team White tops Team Black in SPTC event

Team White ofg Marlon Pagsanjan, third right front row. (AN photos)

Players in category C matchup, from left, Team White’s Eman Usman, Sherwin Nervais, Ariel Domingo, Roman Alcantara (both umpires), Team Black’s Mashur Jamiri and Pierre Abou Toumo.

JEDDAH: Team Black started on fire with category B2+ players Fred Masangkay and Boy Isuga putting down the challenge of Team White in the opening set of this year’s summer tennis tournament of the Samahang Pinoy Tennis Club with a commanding score of 8-5 versus the doubles of Norwin Catipay and Celso Abella at the King Abdulaziz University sports complex last Friday.

Roy Timtiman and Julius Garcia, under category B2 and playing simultaneously in adjacent court, sustained Team Black’s hot streak in the 2nd doubles and applied the heat on Team White’s Rolly Saldana and Mark Anthony Banaag with another Team Black’s breakaway lead, 8-4, at the end of the 2nd set.

Playing in the 3rd doubles and undaunted with the tremendous 7-game overall team deficit they had before the start of the 3rd set, Team White’s Marlon Pagsanjan and Mario Betorio, in another clash under category B2, unleashed their team’s firepower against Cizzner Carascal/Roman Alcantara of Team Black with a barrage of searing under-spin shots by Betorio and stonewall blocking shots by Pagsanjan that kept their opponents stranded and bewildered in front of the net most of the time. The White pair bagged all the games but one to close out the 3rd set at 8-1, and leveled the overall team scores at 17-all.

Waymor Carmelotes/Oca Lovitos ignited another hot rally for Team Black in the 4th set under category B2, thrusting to 6-3 games lead from a 2-3 disadvantage against Team White’s Mike Amerol-Leo Milarion, then held on to 7-4 lead till they ended the set at 8-4, that tipped back the balance into Team Black’s favor with 25 games overall to 21 over Team White. But Eman Usman and Sherwin Nervais took their Team White back into contention right away in the 5th set against Team Black’s Pierre Abou Toumo-Mashur Jamiri with masterful execution of backhand winners by Usman and topspin shots by Sherwin, resulting to 4-1 and 7-2 leads, and an 8-4 finish to even up again the overall team scores at 29-all.

The 6th set saw category doubles C JM Bravo-Haji Pilongo breaking through from behind at 0-3 to notch a string of 6 games for a 6-3 lead against Ariel

Domingo-Ali Callanta, then hang on to the lead at 6-4 till the 8-4 result that brought Team White ahead for the first time in the overall match at 37-33 games. Then, in the 8th set, Nasser “the Chef” Cayquep in collaboration with Zaldy Gabriel cooked up an 8-3 comfortable lead against Yusuff Adriatico/Allan Mabini of Team Black to push White’s lead with 9 games overall differential.

Team Black fought back in the 8th set under category C doubles with Nilo Gamba-Arnold Tambalo terminating the set in their favor at 8-5 versus Team White’s Fernan Fermin/Clark Maldo to cut Team Black’s deficit of 6 games from 50-44 overall games scored so far to-date. The 9th and last doubles in Legend category is scheduled for the next play-date, 05August2016.

The “Beat the Heat” Tennis Tournament is organized by the club officers of SPTC led by Ariel Domingo as chairman. Team White is managed by Marlon Pagsanjan while Team Black is captained by Waymor Carmelotes.