Foreign bets dump Patrombon, Arcilla

MANILA, Philippines - Seeded foes played with surgical precision to end the campaign of Filipinos Jeson Patrombon and Johnny Arcilla yesterday in the PSC-Philta International Men’s Futures Open at the Valle Verde Country Club shell courts in Pasig City.

Top seed Enrique Lopez-Perez of Spain trounced Arcilla, 6-0, 6-4, while Japanese third seed Kento Takeuchi turned back Patrombon, 7-5, 7-5, to move to the quarterfinals of the $15,000 tournament and put the local resistance in jeopardy.

Francis Casey Alcantara is left alone to fight for the Philippines but was facing eighth seed Hiromasa Oku of Japan at press time.

Ranked 355th in the world, Lopez-Perez used his sheer power to speed things up and throw Arcilla off his usual slow-paced game, finishing the lopsided match in just one hour.

The 24-year-old Lopez-Perez will next take on seventh seed Hung Jui-Chen of Chinese Taipei.

The meet is organized by the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Tennis Association, Pioneer Insurance, Babolat, Asian Tennis Federation and Philta president, Mayor Edwin Olivarez.

Hung downed Australia’s Edward Bourchier, 6-1, 6-7 (2), 6-1.

Earlier, Patrombon, the only world-ranked Phl-based Filipino at 1209th, was in the thick of the fight in the first set where he and the Japanese each broke serve. But the 569th lefty soon found a way to break serve in the 11th game and turned things around.

The Japanese, who beat Patrombon thrice before, broke again in the ninth game of the second set with an impressive service game. Takeuchi converted 71 percent of his first serves compared to 68 percent by Patrombon, and won four of six break point opportunities.

Patrombon fought hard and broke the Japanese twice. But in the end, Takeuchi brandished the more dominant game with massive forehands and bore into the Filipino’s game.

Takeuchi, who bundled out Fil-Spaniard Diego Garcia-Dalisay in the opening round (6-2, 7-5), will go up against Japanese Issei Okamura, who eliminated compatriot Katsuki Nagao, 6-4, 6-4.