By Cesar Q. Quilenderino

JEDDAH — Team C played their games when it mattered most to upset Team D in the first semifinal at the King Abdulaziz University sports complex, reversing the scoreline of their first round encounter — with Team C overcoming Team D 35-26.

Gary Bautro/Rolly Bautista, under category Legend, led the charge in set-by-set competition, with Team C dominating 4 sets to one against Team D. The opening set doubles, saw a struggle for six (6) tough and sudden-death deuce games with Team D’s Pol Fernandez/CQ Quilenderino winning one, while Team C taking the other 5 games.

The Team C duo started with consistency, aimed their baseline high-looping shots to veer away from the attacking net games of their opponents, and came up with the wins of three (3) straight games after losing serve in the initial game. They controlled the next four (4) straight games including another sudden-death deuce game in the 8th frame to breakaway at 7-1.

The Team D doubles briefly emerged into the fight with 2 straight game points in the 9th and 10th frames, but Team C’s Bautista served out to win another sudden-death deuce and the most significant game of the day for his partner, Bautro, who was due to celebrate his birthday with the entire SPTC club members.

In the 2nd set, under category B1/B2+, Team D’s Memed Darkum/Moi Noto suffered also a reversal from their first-round win against Team C’s Celso Abella/Norwin Catipay, who gave them a similar no-mercy verdict of 8-3 defeat in vengeance to an 2-8 loss in previous round. The Team C pair forced their opponents into errors with well-placed corner-to-corner defensive lobs that left Team D 1-4 down.

The Team D pair caught up at 3-4, but Team C’s Abella and Catipay tighten the screw in the next two (2) games to make it 6-3. All players then held service in the succeeding four games, with Team C’s Catipay winning the 13th game at the score of 40-15 to end the match, 8-5, for his team.

Under category B2+/B2, Team C’s Rolly Saldana/Romeo Dilla and Team D’s Julius Garcia/Rauf Butt’s with the latter team waging a close battle early after leveling the score at 2-2, catching up from 3-4 and 4-6 down, then notched up the next three (3) games to own the point over the 7th frame. But, as in their past match, Team C refused to wilt under the pressure under the service game of Butt, and broke his serve in the 14th game to level at 7-7 for a tiebreaker. Team C then won the tiebreak game to win their 2nd set match at 8-7.

The 4th set was a token resistance by Team D, with Hajji Pilongo and Ahmed Mahdi winning against Team C’s Ruben Alzate/Rik Maulion, 8-3. After a 5-0 start, the Team D pair repeated their previous win over their opponents, sustaining their lead at 7-2, before winning at 8-3.

In the 5th set under category C, Benhashim Salabin/Clark Maldo of Team C turned the tables on Team D’s Mencool Usman/Madze Ali with a comfortable 8-3 victory compared to a hard-fought 7-8 loss to the Team D doubles in their previous first-round match. Team D’s Usman lost serve in the 1st game, so did Team C’s Salabin for 1-all score. But Team C then broke their opponents service in the 3rd and 5th to chalk up a 4-1 lead. They countered the vaunted under-spin backhand of Usman, limiting him of only one (1) won serve throughout the match, in the 9th frame, for a whopping 8-3 finish.

This team tennis tournament is organized and managed by the Samahang Pinoy Tennis Club of Jeddah with support of TFC, a TV channel named True Filipino Channel.