Out-of-towners play for flag vs Indons

Coach Martin Misa loves to call his team the product of a genuine grassroots program with the country's old tennis warriors all gone and young provincial standouts beginning to fill in their places.

For the first time in years, an all-out-of-towner team is carrying the Philippine colors in men's tennis, and it gets its baptism of fire as it takes on the battle-scarred Indonesian team in the first round of the Asia-Oceania Zone Davis Cup competitions Feb. 4-6 at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

It's basically youth versus experience as the team of Johnny Arcilla from Butuan, Rolando Ruel Jr. from Palawan and Adelo Abadia and Pop Sabandon both from Zamboanga clashes with Indons Suwandi Suwandi, Fedi Widhiyanto, Hendrie Susilo Pramono, Edy Kusdaryanto and Suhendar Dinata.

Despite a built-in advantage of having to play on home turf, Misa admitted they're the underdogs but didn't discount the possibility of an upset, saying his players are all raring to prove they're ripe to play in major competitions like the Davis Cup.

All former junior players with practically no experience in Davis Cup, Arcilla -- now the country's top ranked player -- and Co. vowed to make a rousing debut as national players, doing their best in a bid to bring the Philippines back in Group I competitions.

In the draw to be held this morning at the Manila Midtown Hotel, Misa is expected to nominate the 19-year-old Arcilla and Abadia, 22, to play the singles and Ruel, 21, and Sabandon, 18, to play the doubles.

Indon captain Tintus Arianto Wibowo, meanwhile, is likely to call on Suwandi and Widhiyanto to play the singles and Pramono to pair with Widhiyanto in the doubles.

The Filipinos could well have their hands full against the Indons, considering the fact that the visiting team made a silver-medal finish in the recent Brunei SEA Games and is fresh from a solid stint in an ITF Satellite tourney in India.