Piencenaves, Asuncion head romp of top bets

Ian Piencenaves romped away with an easy victory while Kennevic Asuncion scored an early walkover win as the top two seeds led the march of the fancied bets to the round of 32 in the men’s singles event of the JVC Open Badminton Championships at Powersmash in Makati Monday.

Piencenaves, playing out of Philippine Army, made short work of Cornelio Dieta, 15-1, 15-1, to arrange a clash with Ryan Conde of UST, who fought back from a set down to complete an 11-15, 15-9, 15-13 victory over Jimson Dionisio.

Jose Mascarina failed to show up, enabling Asuncion, who bowed to Piencenaves in last year’s finals of this event sponsored by electronics giant JVC, to easily move into the next round against Jerome Soriano, who beat Unison Alegria, 15-12, 15-5.

Other winners were joint third seeds Arolas Amahit Jr., Jaime Junio, No. 5 Bogie de Guia and Alfredo Mallon, Melvin Llanes, Rizalino Belleza, Gregorio Yanglay, Mark Natividad of FEU, Ramil Mercado, Andrew Romualdez, Jojo Mance, Lloyd Escoses, Heidenberg Dimarucot, Owen Lopez, Wilmer Frias, Recson Salvador, Dennis Khan, Jason Condez, Poppert Bernadan, Wally Fernandez, Jaime Llanes and Chester Cordero of The STAR.

Piencenaves and Asuncion also led their respective teams to one-sided victories over their respective rivals to likewise advance to the round of 32 in the men’s doubles on Tuesday. Piencenaves teamed up with Arolas and dominated the Dieta-Jay-Ar Polo tandem, 15-1, 15-1, while Asuncion partnered with Melvin Llanes to post a 15-1, 15-0 rout of Jaime Regsin and PJ de Villa.

Other doubles winners were brothers Jonas and Jerome Serrano, Jaime Llanes-Jaime Junio, Edward Namoco-Roel Inciong and Alex Cuevas-Dodie Sertan.

Valle Verde’s Alex Callanta produced the worthiest win Monday as he upended third seed Gerard Certeza of Club Filipino, 15-13, 15-11, in boys’ singles to set up a round-of-32 clash with La Salle’s Dominic Garcia, who beat John Tuason, 15-7, 15-9.

Top seed Tim Ang of PNP scored a walkover win over Terence Guevarra to arrange a showdown with PJ Vivas, who thumped Christian Estuche, 15-2, 15-0. Joining Callanta and Ang in the next round of the event, backed by Technomarine, Colours, Alaska, Rudy Project, Accel, Ayala Center, The STAR, Tokyo Tokyo, Lactacyd, 103.5 K-lite, Pioneer Insurance, Gosen and Victorinox Orginal Swiss Army Knives, were Rhaymarck Angeles, Norjeno Tomelden, Randolph Balatbat, Luis Gomez, Roy Callanta, Paquito Olivas, brothers Peter and Patrique Magnaye, third ranked Toby Gadi, Paul Vivas, Patrick Centeno and second seed Kevin Dalisay.

In the school team competitions, Far Eastern, UP-Diliman, University of Santo Tomas and University of the East posted two victories each to pace the eight-team field. FEU routed Ateneo and College of St. Benilde via 3-0 routs, the same score posted by UST over Polytechnic University of the Phils. and UP-Los Banos, and UE over UP-LB and PUP. UP-Diliman, on the other hand, trounced Ateneo, 2-1, after blanking CSB, 3-0.

For results and other details, visit the event’s website at www.jvcbadminton.com.