Latorre, Ferrer in hunt for Phinma slots berths summit

MANILA, Philippines -Jeremiah Latorre and Enrique Gabriel Ferrer swept their respective foreign rivals to make up for the setbacks of the other Filipino bets in the qualifying round of the Phinma International Junior Tennis Championships at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center yesterday.

Latorre overpowered Australian Ben Lye, 6-1, 6-0, while Ferrer held off American Naara Shin, 6-2, 6-4, to advance to the next round of the two-day elims which will select the four other entries into the tournament proper starting tomorrow.

Stefan Agustin Suarez also advanced with a 6-1, 6-0 rout of American Ryan Wong in the tournament backed by Technifibre (official ball), Viva (official mineral water) and Powerade (official energy drink) and supported by the Philippine Sports Commission.

The rest of the local aspirants, however, fell by the wayside with Christian Fel Lopez bowing to Chien Hung of Taiwan, 6-0, 6-1; Jaffary Cariga losing to Yu Chang Wang, 6-1, 6-2, also of Taiwan, Dheo Talatayod yielding to a 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 setback to Aussie Edwin Ramos, John Maverick Victoria dropping a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Japan’s Takashi Yasugami and Jerome Romualdez succumbing to Russell Martinez, also of Australia, 7-5, 6-0.

Other foreigners who triumphed were   Korean Jigin Kweon over Filipino Joachim Samson, 6-4, 6-1, Ren Niikura of Japan over Elvie Lopez, 6-3, 6-1, Japan’s Konomi Shida over Carmen So,  6-0, 6-3 and American Toby Miclat over Isabella Mendoza, 6-1, 6-1.