Rain showers limit tennis action

Rain showers from tropical storm Tokage wreaked havoc on the schedule of the 2004 Shell-Telesource Open, limiting completed matches to just a couple Tuesday evening at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.

Art Lopez and Nanding Cajigan dabbled in a little bit of extreme tennis engaging the pair of Roger De Villa and Dr. Bert Ventura as the courts were getting drenched with water. The slippery surface, however, failed to deter Lopez and Cajigan in scoring an easy 6-2, 6-3 victory in men’s 4.0.

Lopez said he and Cajigan just stuck to their guns and played their game against Ventura and De Villa, whose aggressive style almost played to the strengths of the winners.

“We wanted the game over with. Rain or shine we were ready to play. When the little drops or rain turned into showers, we didn’t mind it at all and just played on. Luckily, we were able to pull off the victory,” said Lopez.

For his part, Ventura, who is a dentist at the Commonwealth Health Center, said he and his partner might need more practice time together to reach deeper into the rounds next time out.

“We played bad. It’s not only the rain or the play of Art and Nanding. We just didn’t click out there. We lobbed shots we shouldn’t have and didn’t slice ones we should’ve. It was just not our day,” he said.

In the other men’s 4.0 match, the tandem of Eric Mahinay and Renato “Dodong” Espanola didn’t have to play extreme tennis but nonetheless had to sweat it out against the duo of lanky Rommel Tiosejo and youthful Nigel Cacdac.

Mahinay and Espanola got an inkling of things to come when they were stretched in the first set. Tiosejo and Cacdac made it more interesting in the second, forcing a rubber set. But in the third, Mahinay and Espanola pushed all the right buttons to take the win 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

The teenage girls team of Kanani Ashraf and Vivian Lee also advanced to the second round of men’s 3.0 after their opponents, Roy Banados and Joel Santiago, failed to show up for their encounter.

The men’s 4.0 match between the team of Buddy Garote and Martin Igitol and Hector Gutierrez and Buboy Sergio was a tug-of-war in the first set when rain interrupted.

Tournament organizer Filipino-American Tennis Association said matches in the men’s 4.0 and men’s 3.0 will continue with games in the men’s open, men’s 4.5 and women’s doubles scheduled to begin today.

For more information about the 2004 Shell-Telesource Open, please call tournament directors Elmer Guzman at 483-2004 or Alex Martin at 322-1130.