Loyola, Pangelinan rally for open win

Peter Loyola and Roy Pangelinan won the men’s open championship of the 2nd Annual Taga Tennis Tournament Tuesday evening at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.

The top seeds defeated Daniel Son and Lito Cabrera in a closely fought finals match that began around 9am Monday but wasn’t decided until more than 24 hours later on Tuesday.

Son and Cabrera eked out the win in the first set, as Son’s power and Cabrera’s craftiness on the net baffled Loyola and Pangelinan in the tiebreak. It also didn’t help that Pangelinan was making double-faults left and right.

Loyola and Pangelinan came on strong in the second by using veteran savvy to negate their opponents’ advantage in speed and endurance. They would win the set handily to force a third and deciding race-to-six.

In the third set, Son and Cabrera went up 3-2 before rain showers created water puddles on the tennis court and the match was called off and reset for the next day.

When the battle was rejoined the following evening, Son and Cabrera appeared to be the fresher pair as they continued to dominate Loyola and Pangelinan and went up 4-3.

But in the following games, Loyola and Pangelinan managed to tie it up at 5-5. The duo needed to break their opponents in the next game and succeeded when Cabrera fell apart.

Leading 6-5, Pangelinan appropriately put on the finishing touches, serving superbly to annex the title. The final point came when Son misfired on a slice from Loyola that had the ball sailing wide to end the match in a score of 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 7-5.

Loyola said they had to rely heavily on their experience to pull off the win. He admitted that they felt bad after losing the first set but regrouped in the second. Loyola noted that he and Pangelinan decided to vary the speed of their shots in an effort to catch Son off balance. He also said the ploy helped in blocking Cabrera’s opportunistic drop shots on the net.

Joining Loyola and Pangelinan in the winners’ circle Tuesday night was the pair of Cleofe Santos and Audrey Motto. The May-September tandem finished off Ligaya Paculanang and Merle Hudkins in straight sets, 6-1, 7-5, to hoist the championship trophy of the women’s 4.0 division.

Only the championship of the men’s 3.0 division remains to be decided in the doubles competition. As it stands, the Tinian pair of Lemuel Arabelo and Doi Ligan is still waiting their finals opponent.

Arabelo and Ligan’s patience may have to be tested for one more day, as Archie Montecillo and Joe San Nicolas were still battling Massimo Flouti and Cristophe Bertin in the semis as of presstime.

Incidentally, Montecillo and San Nicolas saw action Tuesday night and again did their home island of Tinian proud, beating Ricky Castro and Babu Malayil 6-3, 6-4.

While all but one doubles division have been completed, singles play kicked off Tuesday with 10 matches getting done.

In the 4.0 singles, Father Ryan Jimenez celebrated his return to the islands following a 7-5, 6-2 win over Romy “Colonel” Sotto. Beltau Toshi also won his debut, defeating Masahiro Tanaka 6-3, 6-3.

In the men’s 3.0, Sonny Decena made his ferryboat trip from Tinian worth the while, topping David Gott 6-4, 6-2.

Mike Seawright, Ferdinand Ngirmakur, Ruben Leynes, and Raj Rai were all on the winning side of their opening round matches. Seawright outplayed Efren Sacopla, 6-2, 6-4; Ngirmakur turned back Arabelo, 6-1, 6-3; Leynes thumped Reo Arriola, 6-1, 6-3; and Rai beat Sathyan Kalarikkal, 6-1, 6-2. Edgar Caronan also advanced after winning via default.

In the men’s 2.0, Hom Roka ousted Carlo Bicol in a score of 6-3, 6-0, while Qiu Yong Zhe did a number on Ryan Nisperos, 6-0, 6-0.

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.