Patrombon watches rash of Phl losses

MANILA, Philippines - Taking a bye on first day action, top seed Jeson Patrombon watched in pain from the sidelines as nine Filipino netters bombed out at the start of the 22nd Mitsubishi Lancer International Juniors Championships at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center yesterday.

Patrombon is due to play in today’s second round so the floor went to six girls and six boys from Phl who were given wild card berths in the Grade 1 netfest. Unfortunately, all six girls were wiped out by their respective foreign rivals and the first three boys fell one after another.

Maika Jae Tanpoco forced her Belgian opponent, qualifier Klaartje Liebens, to a deciding set but faltered in the end, 4-6, 6-4, 4-6.

Clarice Patrimonio, the highest ranked player among the Phl girls at 190th and winner of a recent Grade 4 tournament in Brunei, yielded to Indonesian Nadia Ravita, 2-6, 2-6. Tamitha Nguyen, daughter of former national Edna Olivarez and ranked 375th, also got the boot after a 2-6, 1-6 loss to Swedish Susanne Celik.

Marian Jade Capadocia, who made it to the third round last year, bowed out early this time via a 4-6, 3-6 setback to Romanian Patricia Maria Tig; while Marinel Rudas lost to   Belgian Elke Lemmens, 0-6, 5-7; and Anne Rene Castillo fell to Canadian Kimberley-Ann Surin, 0-6, 0-6.

The first three Phl boys also crashed out with Jurence Mendoza’s 3-6, 6-7 (6) loss to Taiwanese Chi-Shan Jao; Calvin Canlas’ 0-6, 0-6 setback to Mexican Juan Pablo Murra; and Kyle Parpan’s 2-6, 1-6 misfortune to Japanese Soichiro Moritani.

Patrombon, who has moved up to ninth in the latest ITF junior rankings, opens his bid against either Chinese Xin Gao and German Patrick Elias in the second round. Gao and Elias were playing at presstime.