Victorino, 17, makes RP team

Joseph Victorino, a full-fledged tennis scholar of the Manila Southwoods Tennis Academy under the Fil-Estate Sports Foundation, Inc. (FESFI), will join the Philippine team as the youngest representative in the event of the Southeast Asian Games next month.

The inclusion of the 17-year-old Victorino, now ranked in the top 200 junior players in the world, can be credited mainly on his sterling performances in the international and national tournaments.

Victorino won his first ITF Championship in the double’s event in Sarawak, Malaysia, last year. He had an unblemished record in the doubles event of the Davis Cup Group 3 in the ITF Vietnam Tennis Championships, defeating the number 2 junior player of powerhouse Australia in the process. He was also undefeated in the doubles event in the Davis Cup Group 3 qualifying matches that helped the Philippines regain respectable position back in the Group 2 of the Asia Oceania Davis Cup Zone.

This year, he reached the singles finals in the recently concluded National Open Men’s Championship held at the Rizal Memorial Complex.

FESFI chairman Robert John L. Sobrepeña believes that Victorino can be the next Felicisimo Ampon, the country’s top tennis player in the 50’s, given the right training and by competing in more foreign and local tournaments.