Golden Racquet slips past TAGA

The opening of the 5th Annual Traders Insurance Badminton Team Tournament had a down-to-the-wire finish with the Golden Racquet outclassing TAGA, 17-16, over the weekend at the TSL Sports Complex.

The Golden Racquet-TAGA tussle featured 11 events with each category played in three games and the team with the most games won prevailing in the pairing. Golden Racquet swept three doubles event, won four more doubles categories on 2-1 decisions, and lost two doubles and two singles.

Noli Santos and Edwin Maratas gave Golden Racquet its first doubles win when they swept TAGA’s Rodwealth Espana and Jerry Tan in the men’s doubles B last Saturday, 21-11, 21-10.

Golden Racquet’s two other doubles victory last Saturday via straight sets came from the pairs of Eydie Uy and Jordan and Marylyn Montano and Jen Savellano. Uy and Jordan downed Luis Camacho and Panapa Peteru in the men’s doubles C, 21-13, 21-17, while Montano and Savellano defeated Gigi Zapanta and Merlie Tolentino in the women’s doubles B, 21-11, 21-19.

Also delivering a win for Golden Racquet last Saturday was Annarose Omori and Montano, who edged Angie Ito and Shirley Kim in three games, 21-17, 13-21, 21-17.

TAGA won two matches during the opening day of the team tournament, courtesy of the duos of Andrew Galvez and Espana and Rose Lazaro and Elna Curate. Galvez and Espana swept Edwin Montoya and Eric Pena in the men’s doubles A, 21-13, 21-7, while Lazaro and Curate topped Lupe Sabino and Chris Obaldo, 23-21, 23-21.

After completing six matches last Saturday, Golden Racquet and TAGA played the remaining five last Sunday with the former winning three of them to pull off the close victory.

Vic Regis and Cheng Zingcapen gave Golden Racquet a 2-1 win when they beat Tan and Loyda Ito in the mixed doubles A, 21-13, 25-27, 21-10. In the mixed doubles B, Golden Racquet’s Lito Mendoza and Savellano thwarted Camacho and Cristy Villaflor, 20-22, 21-13, 21-12. Golden Racquet went on to sweep the mixed doubles matches after Kanata Omori and Obaldo triumphed over Peteru and Lazaro in the mixed doubles C event, 15-21, 21-3, 21-7.

After losing the three mixed doubles games, TAGA recovered in the two singles matches with Galvez and Ito sweeping their separate foes. Galvez prevailed over Alvin Alvarez in the men’s singles, while Ito won over Anna Alvarez in the women’s singles.

Besides the Golden Racquet and TAGA, three other clubs—Saipan Badminton Club, Shirley’s BC, and the Berks Blazerz—are competing in the team tournament. Results of the Berks Blazers-Shirley’s BC pairing along with the partial scores of the Saipan Badminton Club-TAGA duel will be published in Saipan Tribune’s Thursday edition.

Format for this year’s Traders Insurance team tournament is round robin with only the Top 4 teams advancing to the cross-over semifinals. Team standings will be determined by adding all games won after the round-robin play.