Rain messes up tennis schedule

Monsoon rains wreaked havoc on the scheduling of tennis matches in the ongoing Verizon Cup at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.

The Saipan Tennis Association-organized event is supposed to be already halfway through its singles round, but cancelled matches because of bad weather has stretched the doubles division to its second week.

With no singles matches in sight until, hopefully, the weekend, organizers finished what they could Wednesday with a couple of doubles championships finally wrapping up.

In the men’s 4.0, giant killers Jess Pacheco and Tony Santos finally met their match after they were waylaid by Ronnie Lacbayo and Nanding Cajigan in straight sets 6-4, 6-2.

The men’s 4.0 champions went up against tall odds to capture the title, as the win over Pacheco and Santos were their second match of the day. Earlier, Lacbayo and Cajigan outplayed the highly touted pair of Mohammad Ashraf and Joe Motto, Sr. 6-3, 6-4 to earn the ticket to the finals.

Lacbayo and Cajigan came out of nowhere to snatch the trophy away from Pacheco and Santos, whose romp through the tournament also saw them upset No. 1 seeds Jorge Olanda and Edwin Maratas in the second round.

Members of the Tinian Tennis Association, meanwhile, scored a coup of sorts when the tandem of Emily Kwan and Ellen Uy made mincemeat of Saipan’s pride Agnes Salazar and Minako Watanabe.

Salazar and Watanabe, who entered the contest as the top seeds, fought Kwan and Uy in even terms in the first set before falling. But there was no stopping the Tinian Express in the second as Kwan and Uy finished the job and left for Casino Land with smiles on their faces.

Among the casualties of the weather Wednesday were the men’s open semifinals between the top-seeded team of Faheem Ebrahim and Roy Pangelinan and 5.0 rookies Buddy Garote and Richard Asuncion.

Also blown by the gusty winds are the semifinals of the men’s 4.5 and 3.0 and the championship of the women’s open.

Sponsor Verizon has committed $1,000 in cash and about $2,000 worth of cellular phones, phone cards, t-shirts, caps, and other merchandize to STA for the tournament.

For more information on the 2nd Verizon Cup please call Roy Pangelinan at 256-7769, Nelia Luna at 288-5151/287-0859, Agnes Salazar at 287-0858, Richard Asuncion at 287-0856, Babu Malayil at 286-9745, or Lope Padilla at 286-9733. Those interested can also e-mail STA at saipan_tennis@yahoo.com.