By Cesar Q. Quilenderino

JEDDAH — Team C displayed its team firepower with its three battle-tested doubles in the 1st phase of its championship match-ups against Team B at the King Abdulaziz University Sports Complex here and came close to toppling again the higher-ranked Team B, while logging 8-3, 8-6, 8-7 winning scores in the first three sets and match-ups of the day.

At the forefront of Team C’s treble doubles success were Benhashim Salabin/Clark Maldo, who went up against Team B’s Masher Jamiri/Fernan Fermin in category C/C in a pressure-laden sudden-death deuce games right at the first deuce, which the Team C won by breaking Jamiri, then went on to win each of their service games in the 2nd and 4th games while breaking Fermin 3rd game to earn a comfortable 4-0 lead.

In the 5th, Team C’s pair came got on the scoresheet, 1-4, via another sudden death deuce (the fourth in the match) with Jamiri serving. But Salabin/Maldo sustained their dominance in the battle of sudden-death deuces, grabbing the next three sudden-death deuce games, while another two going to their opponents for 7-3. They never allowed Fermin to hold service throughout the match and broke him in the 10th to win 8-3.

The 2nd set saw Team C’s Rolly Bautista/Gary Bautro in a roller-coaster battle against Team B’s Jun Tomas/Ariel Domingo, almost losing comfortable leads twice (6-2 and 7-3) before coming out winners in category Legend at 8-6 after breaking Domingo’s service. All four players lost their service games in the early stage of the match, and teams were tied 2-2; then, Team C’s Bautista/Bautro notched up four successive points from 5th to 8th game. Tomas/Domingo responded by breaking Bautista at love-40 in the 9th game, and Domingo winning serve 40-15 in the 10th to cut the lead to 6-4. Bautro won his serve in the 11th to push the game for closeout at 7-4. But, their opponents refused to bow out and battled back instead, with Tomas winning the 12th and then breaking Bautista again at love-40 to make it 6-7. The Team C’s duo stopped their opponent’s momentum by breaking Domingo’s service in the 14th to win 8-6.

In the 3rd matchup, Team C’s Rik Maulion/Ruben Alzate staved off a scare from Team B’s Roy Timtiman/JM Bravo in another pulsating tie. Disaster was averted in a tie-breaker of the extended 14th game after Maulion/Alzate lost 4-2, 5-3, 6-4 leads to Timtiman/Bravo, who wiped out those leads and, then streaked ahead top in the next three games by holding serves in the 11th and 13th games and breaking Alzate in the 12th for a 7-6 Team B’s lead.

Maulion then held serve in the 14th game with a sudden-death deuce-game to force a tiebreaker, which they won with a 6-4 finish for an 8-7 closeout.

Team C took the 1st phase of this championship match with 24) points against 16 for Team B. The 2nd phase of the championship match will be played at the same venue at King Abdulaziz University sports complex.

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 that gave away sport T-shirts for the tournament players, club members, as well as the guests and visitors.

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