Three teams win doubles titles

The champions of the men’s 4.0, men’s 2.0, and women’s 3.0 divisions of the 2nd Annual Taga Tennis Tournament were determined Monday at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.

In the men’s 4.0, top seeds Jorge Olanda and Edwin Maratas finally tasted a championship after years of being together following their 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 win over the dangerous pair of Hector Gutierrez and Boboy Sergio.

Olanda and Maratas said they slowed down the pace of the game in an effort to neutralize the speed and shot-making abilities of Gutierrez and Sergio. It was touch and go in the first set before Olanda and Maratas pulled out all the stops in the tiebreak, torching their opponents in a lopsided score.

It was also anybody’s ballgame in the second set but Olanda and Maratas persevered, winning the last two games to win the finals.

Aside from finally taking home the title in men’s 4.0, the victory also avenged Olanda and Maratas’ loss to the same team in the previous Filipino-American Tennis Association event.

In the men’s 2.0, newcomers Isagani Cortes and Reggie Reyes outlasted the Tinian father-and-son pair of Joe and Correy San Nicolas, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. Cortes and Reyes played efficient ball in the first set but fell into a maze of errors in the second. They got their second wind in the rubber set, slashing winners aplenty and never looked back.

In the women’s 3.0, No. 1 seeds Asun Demapan and Ruby Gozon justified their top ranking by nearly sweeping Ursula Reyes and Ellen Uy of Tinian in a score of 6-1, 6-0.

Demapan and Gozon were in complete control of the match, dominating their southern neighbors in the first set. They went from dominating to perfect in the second, as they brought out the broom and cruised to the championship.

While the championship in the three divisions went down as planned, the title game in the men’s open between No. 1 seeds Peter Loyola and Roy Pangelinan and challengers Daniel Son and Lito Cabrera encountered a hitch when Mother Nature made an unexpected call at the AMP tennis courts.

At the time of the postponement, Son and Cabrera were ahead, a set to none, but Loyola and Pangelinan were coming on strong in the second.

Pacific Trading Co. and Miller Lite are the main sponsors of the 2nd Annual Taga Tennis Tournament with USS Peleliu Club and Yuichiro’s Printing Design as minor sponsors.

For more information about the 2nd Annual Taga Tennis Tournament, please call STA president Roy Pangelinan at 256-7769, vice president-internal Nelia Luna at 288-5151 or 287-0859, vice president-external Ricky Castro at 234-7426, and officers Richard Asuncion at 287-0856, Babu Malayil at 286-9745, and Lope Padilla at 286-9733. Inquiries can also be coursed via email at saipan_tennis@yahoo.com.