Sweet revenge for Dunlop, Rosario

Marivic Rosario goes for a smash, while teammate Dun Dunlop stays back during their title game against David Lai and Lydia Tan in the mixed doubles 40-and-above division of the 6th Tan Holdings Tennis Classic last Sunday at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Dunlop and Rosario took home the mixed doubles 40-and-above championship, following a 6-3, 6-4 win over Lydia Tan and Guam’s David Lai last Sunday at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan. The victory avenged Rosario and Dunlop’s loss to the same duo in last year’s finale. Tan and Lai outclassed Rosario and Dunlop in their three-set title match in 2013, 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 6-3.

Dunlop and Rosario, who were unseeded in the six-team draw earned a return trip to the finals after eliminating two foes. The winning pair first booted out Joy Minor and Lope Padilla last Saturday morning, 6-2, 4-6, 11-9, at the Hyatt Regency Saipan tennis courts and then moved to Fiesta in the afternoon to oust George Lai and Sally Lee, 6-0, 6-4.

David Tai and Tan, on the other hand, drew a bye in the first round for taking the top seed in the division and earned the second finals berth after slipping past Eddie Wu and Cleofe Santos in three sets, 6-3, 4-6, 10-6.

Meanwhile, the mixed open 4.0 finale also went the distance with Joy Minor and Buddy Garote surviving their more than four-hour marathon match against Rosario and Diony Peralta, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).

The mixed open 4.0 title duel was a battle of unranked pairs with Minor and Garote stunning the top-seeded duo of Mihoko and Jim Tuttle, 7-5, 6-2. The Tuttle couple automatically advanced to the semis after drawing a bye in the first round, while Minor and Garote had to prevail against Reo and Sadako Arriola in another three-set match, 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 10-1, to march into the semis of the upper half of the draw.

In the lower half of the draw, Rosario and Dunlop also pulled off an upset in three sets over the second-seeded Sally Lee and Erik Van Der Maas, 3-6, 6-4, 10-8. Peralta and Rosario arranged a semis tiff against Van Der Maas and Lee following a 6-4, 6-3 win over junior players Julia Ishikawa and Ken Song.

In the mixed doubles 3.0, the junior pair of Tania Tan and Clayton Izuka ruled the round-robin competition.

Tan and Izuka got a free win against Ron and Fish Wright (default) last Sunday to clinch the division championship. The winning duo earlier defeated the mother and son tandem of Merle and A.J. Hudkins, 6-1, 6-4, last Saturday to boost its title bid. The Hudkins settled for runner-up honors as they also downed the Wrights last Friday, 6-3, 6-0.