Olivarez stuns Azerbaijan foe

MANILA, Philippines - Shannin Mae Olivarez came through with a stirring straight-set victory over seventh seed Kamila Abdukadirova of Azerbaijan, 6-3, 6-1, yesterday in the first of two-day qualifier for Week 1 of the Phinma International Juniors tournament at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

But Olivarez, one of the country’s top age-group campaigners, will have to dish out a more solid game against either second pick Sari Baba of Japan or Seraina Jaeger of Switzerland today to advance to the main draw of the two-week meet sponsored by the Phinma Group of Companies.

Baba, ranked 943rd in the world, drew a bye in the first round of the qualifiers while Jaeger blanked RP’s Maika Jae Tanpoco, 6-0, 6-0 to arrange a meeting at presstime yesterday with the winner clashing with the lone Filipina survivor.

The rest of the local bets, headed by Katrina Orteza, bowed to strong foreign challenge and crashed out of the elims of the tournament backed by Tecnifibre Balls, Powerade, Viva Mineral Water, Century Park Hotel and the Philippine Sports Commission.

Orteza, one of the four Filipinos who drew opening round byes, fell to No. 5 Mami Adachi of Japan, 1-6, 1-6.

Ålso falling by the wayside were Jasmine Ho, Marianne de Guzman, Bletchley Rocafort, Romain Lepoutre, Jeremy Carreon, John Victoria, Andrew Cano and Miko Jalago.

Ho actually stunned Chinese Cai Xi Wei in the first set but failed to sustain her charge and dropped a 6-4, 1-6, 1-6 setback.

Others hoping to stay alive at presstime are Marinel Rudas and Ellison Bingcang who are up against No. 6 Hitomi Naito of Japan and No. 8 David McKenna of Ireland, respectively.