Dandan survives rash of RP losses

Kyle Dandan overcame a shaky start and went on to turn back Zhou Zhuo-Qing of China, 1-6, 6-4, 7-5, yesterday and become the lone Filipino survivor in the 17th Mitsubishi Lancer ITF Junior Circuit at the Rizal Tennis Center.

After an erratic first set, Dandan recovered his form and charged back by winning the next two, completing the come-from-behind victory in two and a half hours and arranging a second round duel with 11th seed Greg Jones of Australia, who drew a first round bye.

"I committed a lot of errors in the first set," said Dandan, a member of the only RP squad that made it to the World Group Junior Davis Cup held in Barcelona, Spain last year.

"But I started to focus on my game and had more variety in my shots in the next two sets," he added.

Zhou, ranked 167th in the world, bowed to Dandan, who is at No. 94, for the second straight time after the Filipino beat the Chinese in a Group 4 tournament in Thailand last year.

However, the rest of the RP entries in the boys’ division — Pablo Olivarez II, Mark Balce, Raymond Villarete, Ralph Barte and Joshua Ho — all fell by the wayside in the week-long Group 1 tournament sponsored by Mitsubishi Lancer.

Olivarez, 16, bowed to Agung Dewantoro of Indonesia, 7-6 (4), 6-1, in one hour and 41 minutes.

Olivarez, a third year student at La Salle-Zobel, actually raced to a 4-1 lead and had three chances to take the opening frame but failed to endure the pressure, enabling the Indon bet to snatch the set and eventually the match.

Balce lost to Jason Lee of Australia, 6-1, 6-0; Villarete was bundled out by Fumiaki Kita of Japan, 6-2, 6-2; Barte succumbed to Choi Jae-Won of Korea, 6-4, 6-1; and Ho bowed to Bassam Beidas of Lebanon, 6-1, 6-1.

In girls’ play, Noelle Zoleta trounced a taller Lucy Dougherty of Australia, 6-1, 6-0, to set up a second round encounter with top seed Sacha Jones of New Zealand.

Zoleta, who turned 17 last week, banked on her solid baseline game to finish off Dougherty in just 47 minutes. — Joey Villar