Pinays hang tough; boys wiped out in Phinma jr netfest

Local bets had mixed fortunes against their foreign rivals at the start of the Phinma International Junior Tennis Week 1 at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center Tuesday. Tamitha Nguyen, Marinel Rudas and Jasmine Ho of the Philippines survived their respective matches in the girls division, but a number of Filipino players were fell by the wayside in the opening of the main draw of this event. Nguyen went through the proverbial eye of the needle before pulling off a gripping 7-5, 7-6 triumph over crack Thai opponent Varanya Wongteanchai. Rudas subdued Yuko Kimura, 6-2, 6-2, to advance to the next round of this event presented by Phinma Properties in cooperation with the ITF Grand Slam Development Fund. Ho was likewise impressive. She stunned fifth seed Russian Ekaterina Klyueva, 6-4, 7-6. Marianne de Guzman lost to Aldia Sutjiadi of Indonesia, 1-6, 2-6, as did Bea Ysabel Ebriega, who was blanked by Tanaporn Thongsing of Thailand, 6-0, 6-0. Maika Jae Tanpoco bounced back in the second set but succumbed in the deciding set and lost to Nahathai Khuntaket of Thailand, 2-6, 6-3, 2-6. Worse, our local boys were wiped out in the opening round. Joshua Cano found himself overmatched against Yu Hsiang Chiu of Chinese Taipei, and lost 6-0, 6-0, just as Akio Sy and Enrique Ferrer also absorbed stinging setbacks. Sy was clobbered by Sylvester Alamdar of Thailand, 6-1, 6-4, while Ferrer lost to Kuan Lee of Chinese Taipei, 0-6, 3-6. Other first round winners were: Sofia Dmitrieva of Russia and Sanae Ota of Japan, Rui Wang of China, Tomoki Hongo of Japan, Wei Jen Chen and Chung Sheng Yu of Chinese Taipei, Louis Donczyk of Poland and Reiki Kajishita of Japan. – KY, Rey Joble, GMANews.TV