MANILA, Philippines - Monika Banez outplayed Annalyn Cortez with a superb all-around game and came away with a 6-2, 6-3 victory to capture the girls’ 21-and-under girls’ crown in the Baguio Junior Tennis Championships at the Baguio Tennis Club in Baguio City recently.
The win capped the 16-year-old Banez’s impressive campaign in the Group 2 event organized by the Junior Tennis Association of the Philippines as she also pocketed the 18-U diadem with a 6-1, 6-0 triumph over Chelsea Tamayo.
The St. Paul’s Pasig senior likewise matched Andrea Nicole Amistad’s two-title romp in the weeklong tournament sponsored by First Gen and Smart Communications. Amistad reigned in the girls’ 14-U and 16-U divisions.
Other winners in the event, backed by Techni-fibre Balls, APM Agricom, Accel, Columbia Candy, Kimura Chaves, Vic Buencamino Jr., Orlando Galang, Gigi Travers and the Friends of Juntaphil, were Gia Sagandoy (girls’ 12-U), Karl Philip Miguel (10-unisex), Baguio bet Neil Tangalin (boys’ 14-U), Alberto Villamor (boys’ 21-U), Marcen Angelo Gonzales (18-U), Christian San Andres (16-U) and Xavier’s Jacob Martin (12-U).
Tangalin also teamed up with Jerome Romualdez to bag the 14-U doubles title over Cenon Gonzales and Jacob Martin, 7-6 (3), 6-3; Enrique Ferrer and Vernon Huibonhua claimed the 18-U doubles plum with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Arjohn dela Cruz and Marraphael Teng, while Villamor teamed up with Ferrer to clinch the 21-U doubles crown over Joselito Cortez and Andre Brillantes, 6-2, 6-1.
Meanwhile, the second leg of the circuit, dubbed the First Gen/Juntaphil Metro Age Group tennis tournament, will be held May 7-13 at the Rizal Memorial tennis courts.
For details, contact tournament referee Boy Callao at (0928) 373 5260.