Arcilla sets out for gold in tennis

HYDERABAD, India – Top Filipino netter Johnny Arcilla joined boxers Harry Tañamor and Violito Payla in the hunt for the historic gold in the first Afro-Asian Games here, pulling off a big three-set victory over Sonny Kayombo of Congo late Thursday and barging into the finals of the men’s singles at the SAAP tennis complex here.

Although Arcilla will be bumping into a talented Vijay Kannan of India in the finals Friday afternoon, his 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 win over the African bet assured the Philippines of its fifth silver and capped the Filipino netters’ fine showing here after accounting for seven of the country’s 10 bronze medals.

Like Arcilla, Tañamor and Payla will have the Indians as their final rivals although the fancied Pinoy fighters have beaten Mohn Ali Qamar and Akhil Kumar, respectively, in the past. But it will be an entirely different thing when they clash again for the coveted gold in the boxing finals late Friday.

For one, Qamar and Kumar must have gained experience and lesson from those defeats to Tañamor (Busan Asian Games-quarterfinals) and Payla (Chowdhry Cup in Azerbaijan in 2001-semis), respectively, and are expected to have trained and prepared well for their keenly-awaited face-offs starting at 5 p.m. (7:30 p.m. in Manila) at the Gatchibowli indoor gym.

And there is the proverbial hometown crowd to motivate and inspire them – a factor tested and proven in high-stakes international amateur boxing competitions, particularly in the hunt for the gold medal.

"Actually tinalo na nila ang mga iyan, pero di pa rin dapat magsiguro dahil alam naman natin na malaking factor ang home crowd sa ganitong labanan," said RP team Pat Gaspi, coach of the four-man squad headed by ABAP president Manny Lopez and sent here by Revicon, Accel, Pacific Heights and the Philippine Sports Commission.

Still, Tañamor and Payla are oozing with confidence on the eve of the fight, vowing to silence the local crowd and put away the challenge of their rivals the way they thumped Kazakh Serik Sikymbayev and Kim Ki-suk of Korea in the semis Wednesday.

A two-hour training, which included a road workout, sparring and shadow-boxing, kept the two prize fighters busy Thursday and another light workout Friday morning kept them in tip-top form.

The Filipino netters also settled for three bronze medals in the day as the tandem of Czarina Arevalo and Patricia Santos bowed to fancied Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthy of India, 4-6, 0-6, in the semis round of the women’s doubles.

The Filipinos likewise failed in their bid in the mixed doubles despite sending two teams in the semis with Adelo Abadia and Arevalo losing to Mahesh Bhupati and Mirza, 2-6, 2-6, and Arcilla and Santos blowing a hard-earned first-set victory and succumbing to Vishal Uppal and Chakravarthy, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 4-6.

Heading into the final day of competitions, the Philippines has a 0-2-10 (gold-silver-bronze) for 20th place in a field of 97, hoping to gain a big leap on the Arcilla and the boxers’ golden bids.