Patrombon, pal win Aussie Open doubles debut

Drawing from his inspiring win in his first Australian Open singles match Sunday, Jeson Patrombon continued his impressive showing in the first Grand Slam event of the year. On Monday, the Filipino junior netter teamed up with Jaden Grinter of New Zealand to overwhelm the duo of Ryota Kishi of Japan and Nikola Milojevic of Serbia, 6-3, 6-3, in the opening of the boys doubles event at the Melbourne Park National Tennis Center in Melbourne. Manny Tecson, Patrombon’s coach, told GMANews.TV that he and Grinter’s coach, Werner Venter, stressed the importance of capitalizing on each boy’s service strengths. “At 6'5", Jaden has a big serve and he should be serving against the wind while Jeson will serve with the wind so he can use it for more placements and speed on his serve to put pressure on their opponents. They must read where the wind is blowing to capitalize on this and make adjustments in their game," said Tecson. Patrombon and Grinter scored on 45 out of 52 first serves and hit four aces in stamping their class on their rivals. Tecson added, “It just took one service break in the first set to win it at 6-3, while the second set they had two breaks of serve and none of our boys where broken on their serves." Patrombon and Grinter advanced to the second round, earning a showdown with the tournament’s number 3 seeds, Australian bets Ben Wagland and Andrew Whittington. The third-seeded pair of Wagland and Whittington had earlier beaten Andrew Ochotta of Canada and Nick Razbosek of Slovakia, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 7-6 (10-8). Patrombon will also play in the boys’ singles category today against Serbian Miki Jancovic, who beat Thailand’s Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul, 6-0 6-1, to get to the second round.- with a report from Renee Fopalan/KY/RCJ/OMG, GMANews.TV