CIC Tennis Classic: Court’s dry, can play

Ten players managed to enjoy what turned out to be a brief respite from the foul weather Wednesday night in the ongoing Century Insurance Co. Tennis Classic at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.

With Typhoon Tingting lashing her fury earlier this week, the tennis tournament had to postpone its matches until the rains stop and the courts dry up.

Boyet Minor and Elmer Guzman took advantage of clear skies in the men’s open doubles division when the former presidents of organizer FILATA thumped current president Eli Buenaventura and Chuck Sayon 7-6 (11-9), 6-3.

Buenaventura and Sayon actually opened up a big lead in the tiebreak (5-1) before Minor and Guzman made their amazing comeback to bag the first set.

It was all downhill from there for Buenaventura and Sayon, as they put up a fight in the second only to succumb to their opponents’ power and deft touch.

Buenaventura originally had Saipan Tennis Association president Roy Pangelinan as partner and their team-up was the top seed of the men’s 5.0 division. Buenaventura, however, failed to contact Pangelinan in time for their reset match and Sayon had to fill in.

A few hours after Minor and Guzman’s semifinal triumph, their opponents in the championship round was known after the youthful pair of Daniel Son and Tim Quan also earned a shot for all the marbles.

Son and Quan advanced to the finals after they outfought Son’s younger brother Nicolas and Ralph Buenaventura 6-3, 6-3. Daniel was the boys 18-and-under champion of the NPQ a few years ago, while Quan finished second this year in the same tournament held on Saipan.

Although they went down in defeat in the men’s open, the team of Son and Buenaventura regrouped in the 4.5 division when the NPQ veterans whipped the erratic tandem of Gerald Narciso and Richard Asuncion 6-0, 6-4.

Son and Buenaventura said they just tried to play their game in the semifinal match against Narciso and Asuncion. Their opponents, for their part, said they didn’t get that much sleep the night before and probably that affected their performance a bit.

Awaiting Son and Buenaventura in the championship round is the duo of Boyet Minor and Alex Martin, who advanced after outplaying Martin Igitol and John Kintaro last week.

Also safely into the finals is the team of Hector Benitez and Toz Beltau in the men’s 3.0. Benitez and Beltau booked the championship round appearance after hurdling Romy Espeleta and Babu Malayil 6-4, 6-3.

Their opponents in the finals is still unknown as the pair of Dr. Richard “Doc” Brostrom and Dr. Gary Ramsey has yet to play the duo of Edwin Quismundo and Sathayan.

Top seeds Edwin Maratas and Jorge Olanda then authored the evening’s most exciting contest after hacking out a three-set decision against close friends Didith Julve and Manny Po.

Maratas and Olanda took the early initiative blanking their opponents in the first set. But Julve and Po would play beautiful music together in the second to force a winner-take-all third set.

But Maratas and Olanda would go up 3-0 in the deciding set and went on to win the match 6-0, 2-6, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals. They will take on the CHC pair of Dodong Espanola and Dr. Bert Ventura next.

With rain pouring again yesterday, FILATA postponed all matches indefinitely. For rescheduled matches please call president Eli Buenaventura at 322-5880 or past president Boyet Minor at 323-3081.