Having lost 2 sets out of 3 in their previous games on Sept. 18, and both teams penalized with 0-0 for mutually defaulting the singles match, Team Green had their back against the wall in resumption of their semifinal match against top seed Team Orange last Friday as they were in a must-win situation in order to qualify for the championship match, where they had to raise their team’s score up to 2-2 stand-off with their opponent, and at the same time overcome a gap of 2 game-points with 8-5 finish or no-less than 3 points differential at the end of the match due to the tournament rule on point-system.

Playing on Albilad Hotel courts where organizers shifted venue for the semifinal matches, Team Green’s Jun Tomas and Haji Pilongo doused cold water on Team Orange’s hope for a run into the championship round, coming out firing right from the start to take a 4-0 lead against Vic Rebong and Nilo Gamba.

Team Orange’s Vic Rebong and Nilo Gamba put up resistance by breaking the sudden-death serve of Green’s Pilongo in the 5th game, and winning Rebong’s service game in the 6th after 40-30 to cut the gap to 2-4. But Haji Pilongo’s forehand firepower and Jun Tomas consistency on high-looping backhand shots from the baseline were too much to handle for the Orange pair, as the Green tandem launched a straight-forward sweep of the last 4 games to close out the match at 8-2 for a 2-2 win-loss card and a 25-21 total points earned past Team Orange’s and the right for a championship slot against the winner of Team Blue versus Team Red.

In the other half of the semifinal matchups between Team Red and Team Blue in their 4th set, Ali Callanta and Yousuf Adriatico of the Red team also faced with the daunting task of rescuing their group from the brink of falling out, as their team was behind at 1-2 after the previous 3 set battles against Team Blue. The Red team was defeated both in the 2nd set doubles and 3rd set singles last Sept. 23, after winning the first set doubles last Sept. 18

In this 4th set doubles, the Red’s pair had difficulty hitting return serves and targets at the start against Gary Bautro and Ariel Domingo of Team Blue, and failed to put back the ball to their opponent’s court during game #1 of the 4th set due to the heavy serves of Team Blue’s Ariel Domingo, who delivered a surprising ace in the second serve and took away the game from 40-love. Behind at 0-1, Callanta and Adriatico worked their baseline shots with good calculation and consistency, winning their serves in the 2nd and 4th games with break-serves in the 2nd and 5th games to surge at 4-1.

Team Blue’s Gary Bautro and Ariel Domingo notched games 6 and 7, breaking the service game of Adriatico and winning Bautro’ serves to shadow their opponents at 3-4. But Team Red’s Ali Callanta and Yousuf Adriatico kept Blue pair at bay, 2 points away from them down the stretch from 5-3, 6-4, and 7-5 till the match ended, 8-5. The win leveled Red-Blue match at 2-2, leaving the result of the rescheduled 5th set match to decide what team to prevail over the other finals slot of the tournament.

During the scheduled 5th set game on Sept. 26, Team Red’s Uly Bartolata did not show up to pair with Mario Betorio versus Team Blue’s Mike Amerol and Rolly Saldana, prompting organizers to declare a default loss to Team Red and victory to Team Blue at 3 sets to one.