Piencenaves, Asuncion arrange title clash

Defending champion Ian Piencenaves and former titlist Kennevic Asuncion forged an expected showdown for the men’s singles crown in the premier elite category, beating their respective rivals in varying fashion in the semifinal round of the JVC Open Badminton Championships yesterday.

Confronted by a talented opponent in doubles partner Arolas Amahit, the 28-year-old Piencenaves found himself on the defensive end in the first game and needed to unleash explosive shots to score six straight points and turn an 11-14 deficit into a pulsating 17-14 victory.

Piencenaves took the second game via the same score but not after allowing Amahit to battle back from two-points down and draw level at 14-all before racking up the last three points to clinch the 40-minute thriller before a big crowd at the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati.

In contrast, the second seed Asuncion, who lost last year’s crown to Piencenaves in three games, breezed through a 15-5 romp in the first game against Jaime Junio but found the going tough in the second when the No. 5-ranked player forced a deadlock twice, the last at 13-all.

But Asuncion shrugged off the threat and won the next two points to arrange a rematch of last year’s duel for the crown and the top P15,000 purse in the centerpiece event of the annual championships sponsored by electronics giant JVC.

The keenly-awaited finale is set at 1 p.m. today, along with the other championships in various divisions such as the corporate, veterans and the 14-under and 18-under of the juniors. A badminton clinic for beginners starts at 10 a.m.

But while men’s singles finals lived up to its pre-tournament hype, the distaff side found a surprise finalist in Irene Chiu, who pulled off a shocker of a victory over second seed Alma Ledesma.

Chiu, playing out of Premier Club, rallied from a game down as he took the next two to complete a 5-11, 11-9, 11-1 victory and set up a title clash with back-to-back champion Kennie Asuncion, who whipped Melody Villaceran, 11-1, 11-1, in just 10 minutes.

Semifinal matches in the men’s, ladies and mixed doubles of the elite category were still being played at presstime along with those in the 18-under division of the juniors.

Staged by IMG and backed by Pioneer Insurance, Gosen, Alaska Milk Corp., GenTxt, Tokyo Tokyo, Accel, Ayala Center, I-Ayala, Rudy Project, K-Lite 103.5 and The STAR, the event will also have the celebrity tournament, featuring 24 TV, movie and sports personalities, set tomorrow along with an exhibition game among the stars of GMA Artist Center.