Men’s open top seed avoids upset axe

Todd Montgomery and Jeff Race were pushed to the limit in the first set of their second round match against Felipe Quiroz and Yosuke Saito in yesterday’s 5th Annual Coca-Cola Tennis Championships at Pacific Islands Club tennis courts.

Quiroz and Saito proved to be a tough nut to crack, as the opening set had to be decided on a tiebreak. Montgomery actually had a chance to wrap up the set when he was serving for the set with him and Race up 6-5.

But the 2003 Suva South Pacific Games veteran and last week’s winner of the men’s singles uncharacteristically had three double faults and a lightning return by Quiroz, which drew wows from the crowd, forced the race-to-seven.

After getting the first point of the tiebreak, Quiroz and Saito went cold and stumbled on numerous unforced errors. They took just two of the next nine points to lose the tiebreak and yield the first set to the crafty veterans.

Montgomery and Race finally showed what they were really made of in the second set. With Race turning back the hands of time with a vintage performance from the net and Montgomery scrambling for every return on the long court, the duo crushed Quiroz and Saito in shutout fashion to advance to the finals with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-0 win.

Awaiting the top seeds in the finals is the No. 2 team of Faheem Ebrahim and Rory Mackay, who earlier disposed of the Korean connection of Daniel Son and Jung Mun Chung, 7-5, 6-1.

The lone match Friday in the men’s open saw Quiroz and Saito advancing to the second round with a 6-1, 6-2 triumph over the May-September tandem of Boyet Minor and Johnny Johnson.

In the men’s 4.0, Eli Buenaventura and Craig Buboltz advanced to the semis yesterday after blasting Eddie Kim and Jay Jay Lu, 6-1, 6-2.

Buenaventura and Buboltz had a far tougher opening round assignment Friday, scrambling for 7-6, 6-1 win over Nanding Cajigan and Father Ryan Jimenez.

The first round also saw Perry Cacdac and Michael Robert pull the rug from under top seed Roy Pangelinan and Dino Jones.

Friday also saw good pals Jorge Olanda and Edwin Maratas overcome the Commonwealth Health Center pair of Richard Brostrom and Gary Ramsey, 6-2, 6-0. Kim and Lu advanced to the second round with 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Kevin Carey and Haruki Nakajima.

The lone men’s 3.0 result that made it to press time was Evan Hunsberger and Dexter Palacios’ 6-2, 6-4 conquest of Dennis Tababa and Peter Bocago yesterday afternoon.

Ditto for the women’s open, which had Letty Jones and Sally Wong defeat upstart teenagers Mayuko Arriola and Vivian Lee in three sets, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. Wong is Lee’s mother.

In women’s 4.0, Nelia Luna and Lucita Pasana took out Melanie Daly and Karen Buettner, 6-3, 6-3.

Peter Loyola and Cleofe Santos got going against the mother-and-son team-up of Delia and Johnny Johnson, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 in the mixed open. John Jenkins and Tonia Okawa, meanwhile, gave Pangelinan and Young Son a big fat goose egg, 6-0, 6-0.