RATC bags Ladies C title in ALBAIK tourney

RATC rallied to stop a rampaging third set pair of RSTP Angels and win via tiebreak to capture the Ladies category C championship with a sweep of the best-of-three finals in the 4th ALBAIK Team Tennis Challenge at the Al-Bilad Hotel courts.
In the men’s division category C eliminations, Flexpack-Tornado had a big score worked to its advantage to win against Dark Horse. In the HMX category, RSTP blanked Shuman-JIS 4-0 to top the category with a 4-0 record.
Both teams traded wins in the first two sets. RSTP Angels took the first set with Ailene-Amor Idjao beating Jade Callueng-Angie Romero 8-3 before RATC’s Eva Jane Cananea-Doris Nabales clipped the Angels’ Crisanta Dela Cerna-Yham Busran-Nery 8-4.
In the decisive third set, it was close up to the sixth game with a 3-3 score until the Angels’ Fe Abat-Ava Escaler erupted to make the score 7-4 in the 1tth game. But RATC’s Jenny Nebrida-Jamila Panizales would not give up and took the next three games to level at 7-7 and force a tiebreak. It was a straight win of 7-2 for Jenny-Jam to close the set 8-7 to win the match and the championship in the ladies category C.
Flexpack-Tornado invested points where it was needed as they swept past a fighting Dark Horse in their category C match. The Tornadoes pair of Obet Arpon-Pete Arrozal lost the tiebreak to Herbert-Armand of Dark Horse in the first set, but Egay Nique-Roy Panes quickly disposed of Edward and Bobring coasting to an 8-1 second set win that tied the match at 1-1. Then Macky Hernandez-Melvin Ates pummeled Rico-Richard to an 8-1 submission in the third set to put the Tornadoes in a 2-1 and an insurmountable 13-point lead. Dark Horse’s Kelly-Adan Republica managed to win the fourth set on tiebreak against Rhey Gutlay-Sonny Galit to tie at 2-2 but Flexpack was awarded the victory via scores earned 30-18.
Over at the HMX category, RSTP led the field after it defeated Shuman-JIS team 4-0. Vooch Maniri-Fred Masangkay won the first set over Noel Panti-Arnold Bernardino 8-2.
In the second set singles, Abdelmeten Khoja beat Michael Marquez on the same score. Third set was won by Jun Ouano and the fancied Carmelo Nery who controlled the shots of MJ Melendrez-Teody Bea to give the victory to RSTP. In the fourth set, Randy Martin-Francis Idjao completed the 4-0 sweep as they dealt an 8-4 beating to Sonny Valencia-Cesar Panti. With the win, RSTP secured top of the rankings in HMX category and would be paired against JCC who placed fourth overall. The other semifinal matchup pits second-ranked Fuchs against No. 3 NCB.