JEDDAH: Team Green dealt an early blow on the bid of Team Blue but the latter held on to win their thrilling matchup for the championship crown in the SPTC HeatWave Tennis Challenge at Albilad Hotel courts last week.

Romy Sorra and Norwin Catipay surprised Fred Masangkay/CQ Quilenderino of Team Blue early in the first set during their clash in the tournament’s top-category doubles with a 5-1 bulge after going 1-1 in the first 2 games. Blue closed in at 4-6 and 5-7 after winning their serves twice. However, Team Green’s Romy Sorra and Norwin Catipay never looked back from 7-5 and tightened their grip of the 13th game to clinch the first set 8-3.

Team Blue’s Mike Amerol and Rolly Saldana started as receivers against the booming flat serves of Team Green’s Roy Timtiman, who was paired with Nep Rosco, during the opening game of the 2nd set. They lost that game at 30-40 as both had difficulty getting into rhythm. Again, Blue team lost the 2nd game at love as Amerol had a hard time with his serves.

From 2-0 down, Team Blue’s Amerol and Saldana got back into groove and notched games 3 to 6 after holding their serves twice while breaking the enemy’s twice to go up 4-2. They kept their lead at 5-3 and took the doubles match away at 8-4 to keep their team right back into contention.

The 3rd set saw Gilbert Gochuico continue his winning run of play-off games since the previously concluded semifinals. This time around, he emerged an unlikely winner to bail Team Blue out, winning his singles match in straight-forward fashion, 6-0, against Ben Hasim of Green to put Blue team ahead at 2-1. The 3rd set went thru significant and tight competitions, though, as Hasim’s service games ended after “deuce-then-sudden-death” serves as prescribed by the tournament rules.

From 2-1 set deficit, Team Green’s last 2 doubles were played simultaneously on Albilad tennis courts #2 and #3.

Green’s Jun Tomas and Haji Pilongo derailed Team Blue’s title march by pressing on and winning the 3rd, 7th, and 11th games. Against Team Blue’s Rick Maulion and Zaldy Gabriel, Green was down at 0-2, 2-5, and critically at points 4-7 – where Maulion had the chance of finishing the match under his advantage with sudden-death serves. From 4-7, Green carved out the longest break of match-point rally in the tournament’s championship, successfully going through 2 sudden-death serves and 2 break-serves to level the match at 7-all forcing a tiebreak. The tiebreaker reversed the tide, and Green won it 7-3 to place the teams level at 2-2 sets.

In the deciding 5th set, Blue’s Gary Bautro and Ariel Domingo trailed 0-2 behind Green’s Mashur Jamiri and Clark Maldo after Domingo lost serves in the 1st game and the two failed to break Maldo serves in the 2nd. The Blue pair got their games going in the 3rd when Bautro held his serves for 1-2, but Jamiri also held serves in the next game to increase Team Green’s lead to 3-1. Thereafter, Bautro and Domingo held serves in succession in games #5 and #7, and broke serve Green’s Maldo in-between to wrest the lead at 4-3. Team Green’s Jamiri leveled the score 4-4 after holding his serves in the 8th game on an easy 40-15 score. The Blue pair had another winning hold-break-hold serves in games #9, #10, and #11 to post another wide lead at 7-4 and come within striking distance of victory.

But Green’s Jamiri and Maldo kept fighting back and refused to wilt under pressure, winning Jamiri’s serves in the 12th game then breaking serves of Team Blue’s Domingo in the 12th to narrow the gap to 7-6 while threatening a tiebreak game. Maldo’s serves went into a climactic sudden-death after a deuce game was saved by the Blue pair, and Domingo put the match to rest at 8-6 when he drilled the winning return from the last serve of Team Green’s Maldo.