JEDDAH: The tandem of Romy Sorra and Norwin Catipay emerged early victors for Team Green at the start of the semifinal match against Team Orange, winning the first set in the SPTC HeatWave Challenge being held at the sports complex of King Abdulaziz University.

Against Team Orange’s doubles pair of Boy Isuga and Oscar Lovitos, the Green’s Romy Sorra/Norwin Catipay came out right from the start of game 1 with a stellar combination of low-flying baseline shots by Sorra followed by a net-attacking play by Catipay that produced a 4-0 lead that pushed the Orange pair against the wall.

Isuga-Lovitos endured an agonizing comeback and avoided meltdown under intense pressure by breaking the service game of Romy Sorra in the 6th game, then held their serves in the 5th and 7th games to close in at 4-3. But Green’s Sorra/ Catipay confirmed their mastery over their opponents’ plays by cranking up angled shots and winners toward the end of their match to close out at 8-3.

In the 2nd set, Team Orange’s Bernie Soguilon and Choy Argarin fought through six deadlocks with Team Green’s Nep Rosco and Roy Timtiman the last at 7-7 before they separated ways in the tiebreak. The Orange pair broke the service game of Timtiman in the 10th game to post the biggest distance in their match at 6-4, but the hard-hitting Roy found his forehand range down to the targets in the 14th game and kept his pair alive into the tiebreak. The Green’s resistance was short-lived, however, as the Orange’s Soguilon/Agarin breezed through with 7-1 tiebreak stopper for an 8-7 Orange win in the second set.

In the 3rd set, Team Orange quashed Team Green’s hopes of catching up with them. In a stellar performance, Nasser Cayquep and Roman Alcantara jumpstarted to a 2-0 lead against Green’s Mashur Jamiri and Clark Maldo by breaking the service game of Maldo in the 1st game and a hold-serve in the 2nd. They padded their lead to 4-1, but the Green’s pair kept charging to close to 2-4.

Cayquep and Alcantara capped a decisive run of 4 unstoppable points down the stretch, with no serve to surrender and with all breakpoints captured to nail down an 8-2 decision, and brought Team Orange 2-1 overall against Team Green.

The singles match was decided by the organizers as double-default due to unavailability of both teams’ players in their official scheduled and rescheduled games. The result is a 0-0 score for the 4th set, and the teams’ match-up stands at 2-1 for Team Orange.

The deciding fifth set is scheduled for this Friday or earlier as the protagonists may decide and as provided under the tournament rules.