Aquinos touched by netters' gesture

Friday morning last week, I had the chance to watch the first of the two opening singles of the Philippines’ Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group II championship tie with New Zealand at the oven-hot Philippine Columbian Association (PCA) center court.

I joined Pinky Aquino-Abellada, one of four daughters of Sen. Benigno Aquino and President Corazon C. Aquino cheering on Fil-Am Treat Conrad Huey in his match against New Zealand’s number one, Daniel King Turner. Huey defeated Turner, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-0, retired. Turner retired at the start of the fourth set after losing two sets to the Washington D.C.-based Huey.

I saw Turner minutes after his exhausting match with Huey on a wheelchair before being assisted into a van that would bring him to a nearby hospital. From where we sat, Turner seemed to have suffered from severe cramps that required massaging and bandaging of his left thigh during an injury timeout. We were later told that Turner was given IV fluids after suffering from dehydration triggered by the heat and the humidity inside the PCA court.

Pinky Abellada represented the Aquino family, which wanted to thank the Philta, represented by Randy Villanueva and the Philippine team composed of Cecil Mamiit (who resides in Los Angeles), Huey, Johnny Arcilla and rookie Elbert Anasta for dedicating the tie to Ninoy and President Cory. The team made the touching and unprecedented gesture of hoisting before the crowd, the portraits of Ninoy and President Cory after each game. Mamiit and Villanueva said that they were adopting the Thai practice of hoisting the portrait of the king and showing their respect for him by hoisting the portrait of the king before the crowd at the end of each match.

Minutes before the first singles match, Villanueva brought Pinky and I to the Filipino players’ lounge. In the lounge, Ninoy and President Cory’s second child expressed the Aquino family’s appreciation. During our brief visit, Pinky gave the team members and supporters, including the De La Salle University tennis coach Roland Kraut, a necklace that had a chrome-plated yellow ribbon as its pendant. She also said, “We’ve been praying for your success for the past several days.”

During the Huey-Turner match that Pinky watched before leaving for a 12:30 p.m. appointment in Quezon City, she helped motivate Huey by cheering loudly whenever the Filipino would score a point. It appeared that she knew her tennis and was familiar with the latest results and goings-on in the Grand Slam tournaments.

While obviously elated with Huey giving the Philippines a 1-0 lead, she sympathized with Turner and hoped that the New Zealander would be alright. After obliging well-wishers with photo-ops, Pinky said that “she wished Turner did not get injured and finished the match healthy.

Mamiit would later conquer Jose Statham, 6-4, 7-5, 6-2, to give the Pinoys a 2-0 lead going into the doubles match the next day, Saturday.

On Saturday, Mamiit and Huey outclassed GD Jones and Mikal Statham, 7-6(4), 6-3, 7-5, to give the country its former slot in Group I of the Asia-Oceania Zone Davis Cup competitions.

On Sunday, veteran Johnny Arcilla made it 4-0 for the Philippines by beating Mikal Statham 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. The Kiwis number two player, Jose Statham, averted a possible shutout by beating Anasta, 6-1, 7-5.

The Aquinos’ representatives during Sunday’s reverse singles were cousins Miguel Abellada (son of Pinky and Manolo Abellada) and Jonty Cruz (son of Eldon and Ballsy-Aquino Cruz). Miguel said he thoroughly enjoyed watching the interesting games. Both he and Jonty expressed their admiration for the whole team, especially Mamiit, who sat with them in the gallery. Jonty said that Mamiit was so “accommodating, personable and kind. He’s OK.”

The Philippine victory over New Zealand comes after a 4-1 win over Hong Kong and a close 3-2 decision over Pakistan. The Philta says the Philippines could face Australia or the winner between China and Thailand as its first round opponent in Group I in 2010.

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It was clear that despite the 21-month lay-off, Floyd Mayweather Jr looked as sharp and skillful as ever last Saturday night (Sunday in the Philippines).

Mayweather’s four-pound advantage over Marquez only seemed to highlight the need to rationalize the matter of catch weights. It would seem that Mayweather (like Rafael Concepcion who was well above the weight limit in his fight against Nonito Donaire) did not care about going above the catch weight and paying hefty fines. In the future, if there are to be catch weights, the fighters should have their official weigh in at 6 a.m. of the day of the fight and not some 30 or so hours before the fight. The catch weight makes a mockery of weight categories in sports and probably highlights the excessive commercialism of boxing.