5TH Cebuana Lhuillier men's open tennis 3 more Cebuano netters earn slots to main draw

CEBU, Philippines - Three more Cebuanos enjoyed “direct acceptance” from the organizers to gain automatic berths into the main draw of the 5th Cebuana Lhuillier Men’s Open Tennis at the Baseline tennis courts.

Jacob Lagman, Franklin Encarnacion and Roy Tabo-tabo, thus, need not to join the qualifying round, which kicked off yesterday.

Direct acceptance is based on the player's rankings in the Philippine Lawn Tennis Association (PHILTA) except for Tabotabo, who got special exemption from tournament director Jun Toledo. Lagman is ranked 25th and Encarnacion at 34th.

Toledo, once a topnotch player who takes pride for being the first Cebuano member of the Phl Team that saw action in Davis Cup, has the right to award wildcard entries as well as choose players to compose the 32-man main draw.

The other Cebuano netters who advanced outright into the knockstage stage were Kennex Abadia and Amiel Ayaay. They were given direct entry courtesy of being in the top 35 of the PHILTA ratings.

The other players who enjoyed such privilege were Rommel Openiano, Rollyto Litang, and John Marie Altiche, while the wildcard entries include some of the country’s top junior netters in Australia-bound Kyle Parpan, Roderick Lazaro, Stefan Suarez and Joshua Cano.

The rest of the four qualifiers will be known today.

Action in the highly-anticipated main draw will start on Tuesday, with defending champion Johnny Arcilla leading the pack of competitors.

Arcilla is bent on collecting his fourth title in this PHILTA-sanctioned Group B event. He missed one title due to injury during the second edition.

Aside from the men’s singles, the five-day event also features the men’s doubles and pro-am category. (FREEMAN)