Losing sleep on US Open

I was on an official out-of-town trip last week, that required a series of meetings. Schedules won’t permit me to do research on materials hence the absence on my allotted space. To those who missed my column, my apologies.

The NBA, the Euro football and the 4 major tennis championships are the few sporting events that I would gladly stay up all night when these tournaments are nearing their final stages. The ongoing US Open is no different with several great matches from the women’s side that merits wide eyes until the wee hours of the morning.

Except for Andy Roddick, the round of sixteen in the men’s draw have been filled up predictably by the top seeds, as expected. The only unseeded entry to crash on the Sweet 16 party is 55th ranked John Isner. The same cannot be said in the women’s draw. Venus Williams, Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva, Jelena Jankovic, Maria Sharapova and now Nadia Petrova had their heads chopped with the upset ax. Noteworthy culprits on Flushing Meadows’ womens’ killing fields are teenagers Petra Kvitova who toppled top-ranked Safina, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark and American Melanie Oudin. Of the three, Oudin is the most impressive, having Dementieva, Sharapova and Petrova, all Russians, as trophies. She now has the unofficial title of The Russian Terminator.

Oudin will next have the winner between Yanina Wickmayer and Kateryn Bondarenko. If Bondarenko prevails over Wickmayer, then she will be the fourth Russian on Melanie’s menu. In the other women’s draw, I see Kim Clijsters battling Serena Williams. I always go for the underdogs and I would like to see Oudin and Clijsters on center court for the Women’s Finals. I’ll go for Clijsters. Yes, Melanie has the quickness, strength and stamina but Kim has the veteran savvy, a slightly slow and calculating game will do the trick. I believe in the saying, “old guys rule”. Payt mga tiguwang!

On the men’s side, I’m particularly intrigued with the 6’9” John Isner’s game. The towering Isner outlasted 5th ranked Roddick in a three-hour, five set match. He has this deceptively slow gait that is complimented with his extra long reach. His strong serves netted him 38 aces and his forehand is superb.

Against an equally strong lefty in 10th ranked Fernando Verdasco, Isner fell in four sets. Verdasco will next face the winner in on-going match between Novak Djokovic and Radek Stepanek. The Federer Express, aka Roger, is cruising towards the Finals, just doing the required formalities in the men’s draw. From the way things look, it’s a toss-up between Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray for the final destiny with the Fed Ex. Meanwhile, more sleepless nights ahead.

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USC’s intramurals have come and gone and of course there were some memorable moments. Notable was the performance of Catherine Jumapao of the College of Commerce women’s basketball team. In the final game versus the College of Engineering, she scored 40-plus points despite being double-teamed and hounded by, was that a 6-foot girl? The feat earned her MVP honors. Cathy also plays for Liloan’s volleyball team for the coming GUV Cup.

Worth mentioning also, still from the College of Commerce, is the swimming team. Trained by CamSur Ironman finisher Franz Baguio and captained by Jeremy Hong, they ruled the waters and claimed the championship. My son Emil is part of this squad and we had wanted to watch their events but he was firm on not letting me and his Mom go. He’s afraid that his swim strokes might change and he would look like an inun-unan nga tulingan on the pool. This is in contrast to Cathy’s insistence on her Ma and Pa to be courtside when she plays. Anyway, congratulations guys!

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STC Batch ’84 is the only group I know that already had millions of mini-reunions since the Fun Run last June 19. Lately, my wife Denise, a part of this batch, has been attending gatherings of the group, a “mangita’g-rason-para-maka-party” kind of pundok. Fun Runs do have some strange aftershocks.

E-mail me at [email protected]

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