STA toasts Taga winners

Saipan Tennis Association capped the year and its final competition of 2004 by awarding trophies to champions and runners-up of the 2nd Annual Taga Tennis Tournament Saturday night at the Hot City Karaoke Bar in San Jose.

A total of 129 players saw action in 144 matches in the course of the 15-day tournament, which followed STA’s first two island competitions—the Toyota Tennis Tournament and Verizon Cup Tennis Tournament.

Triple J Motors employee Peter Loyola and youth netter Mayuko Arriola emerged as the players with the most wins in the tournament.

Loyola got up to the stage to receive a championship trophy three times from STA president Roy Pangelinan and Pacific Trading Co. general manager Charles Cepeda.

The 36-year-old former varsity player from the Philippines’ San Beda College took home the men’s open singles, teamed with Pangelinan to win the men’s open doubles, and partnered with Hector Benitez to claim the men’s 4.5 doubles.

He would have completed a rare grand slam but was denied four championships after losing the mixed open finals, together with Cleofe Santos, against Daniel Son and Kayo Ishii.

Arriola, for her part, bagged the title in the women’s open singles and mixed doubles 4.0. She defeated Letty Jones in the finale of the women’s singles and then combined with older brother, Reo, to win the mixed doubles over Richard Asuncion and Delia Johnson.

Also winning multiple titles were Doi Ligan and Lemuel Arabelo of Tinian. The veteran netters shared the men’s doubles 3.0. Ligan won his second championship in the men’s 3.0 singles, while Arabelo teamed with Ligaya Paculanang to coral the mixed doubles 3.0.

In all, Tinian tennis players bagged nine championship and runner-up trophies. Other winners from the island south of Saipan were Ursula Reyes and Ellen Uy (women’s doubles 3.0 runner-up), Joe and Correy San Nicolas (men’s doubles 2.0 runner-up), and Joe San Nicolas and Archie Montecillo (men’s doubles 3.0 runner-up).

Pangelinan, Son, Paculanang, Ishii, Santos, and Isagani Cortes also won a championship and a runner-up trophy each.

Pangelinan got the aforementioned championship with Loyola in the men’s open doubles but had to settle for second best with Dino Jones in the men’s doubles 4.5. Son came up short with Lito Cabrera in the men’s doubles open before succeeding in the mixed doubles open. Paculanang teamed with Arabelo for the mixed doubles 3.0 title and got runner-up honors with Merli Hudkins in women’s doubles 4.0. Ishii won the mixed open championship with Son but her tandem with Young Son finished second to Kazumi Imai and Yuko Kobayashi in the women’s open doubles. Santos won the women’s doubles 4.0 with teenager Audrey Motto but tumbled, together with Loyola, into second place in the mixed doubles open. Cortes, for his part, joined forces with Reggie Reyes to triumph in the men’s doubles 3.0 but lost to Mark Qiu in the finale of the men’s singles 3.0.

Husband-and-wife tandems also found plenty of success, albeit separately, in the tournament. Karen Ramsey had one up over better-half Gary after she won the women’s singles 3.0. Gary was not far behind though when he settled for second place in the men’s singles 3.0. It was the opposite for Nanding and Ayumi Cajigan. Nanding went all the way in the men’s singles 4.5, while Ayumi came a win short in the women’s singles 3.0. As mentioned earlier, Dino and Letty Jones settled for runner-up honors in their respective divisions.

Hudkins is the lone player to have finished runner-up in two divisions. She won second place in women’s doubles 4.0 with Paculanang and finished in the same place in the mixed doubles 3.0 while playing with Manny Jaraplasan.

Other division winners of the tournament were Asun Demapan and Ruby Gozon (women’s doubles 3.0 champions), Edwin Maratas and Jorge Olanda (men’s doubles 4.0 champions), Hector Gutierrez and Boboy Sergio (men’s doubles 4.0 runner-up), Richard Asuncion and Delia Johnson (mixed doubles 3.0 runner-up), Mark Qiu (men’s doubles 3.0 champion), Cris Nelson (men’s 3.0 champion), Father Ryan Jimenez (men’s 3.0 runner-up), Boyet Minor (men’s 4.5 runner-up), and Ji Hoon Heo (men’s open runner-up).

Pangelinan and Cepeda congratulated all the winners and runners-up of the tournament. Pangelinan also thanked Cepeda and PTC for again agreeing to bankroll the tournament. He also extended STA’s appreciation to minor sponsors USS Peleliu Club and Yuichiro’s Printing Design.

Cepeda, meanwhile, reaffirmed his commitment to STA and to sponsoring sports events in general. He said as long as he is general manager of PTC, STA could always expect help from him.