Abadilla, Tria overcome first-day jitters in First Gen

MANILA, Philippines - Carl Andrew Abadilla and Nio Tria went through some anxious moments before subduing their respective rivals to join the seeded bets into the second round of the First Gen-Juntaphil Metro Age Group Tennis Championships at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center yesterday.

Abadilla recovered from a second set meltdown to turn back Lawrence Sarmiento, 7-6 (4), 3-6 (10-2), to set up a Last 16 clash with sixth seed Marcus del Rosario, who swept Joshua Marasigan, 6-0, 6-0, in the boys’ 14-and-under division of the event presented by First Gen and organized by Junior Tennis Association of the Philippines.

Tria, on the other hand, survived Philip Gadon in a tight first-set duel before completing a 7-5, 6-2 win for a clash with No. 7 Mimo Tomacruz, who booted out Pancho Santos, 6-0, 6-2.

Top seed Arthur Pantino and No. 4 Jacob Martin breezed through with 6-0, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-2 victories over Yuzon Ramos and Jeremiah Macias in the event sponsored by Smart Communications, Technifibre Balls, Accel, RCBC and Pet One.

Other winners in the tournament which stakes 200 ranking points to the winner were Gabriel Yuzon, Ramon Bentillo, Kyle Reyes, Arni Banaawi, Miko Eala, Santino Vistan and Joshua Austria.

Yuzon, Reyes and Vistan won by default, Bentillo beat Daerio Sujica, 6-3, 6-1; Bannawi toppled Dale Israel, 6-0, 6-1; Eala whipped Jan Enicame, 6-0, 6-1; and Austria routed Alejandro Lacson, 6-0, 6-0.

Fifth seed Alfred Doloroso overpowered Jude Hidalgo, 4-0, 4-1, while Juan Carlos Lapore bundled out Elijah Guillermo, 4-2, 4-1, to lead the winners in the 10-unisex class of the week-long event featuring the country’s top junior netters.

Others who advanced were Eurydice Gaspar, Rafael Liangco, Justin So, Rainier Selmar, James Cruz, Noelle So, Minette Bentillo and Juan Alfonso Lacuna.