DJ Auto Parts faces RSTP for B2 crown in ALBAIK Tennis

DJ Auto Parts and Red Sea Tennis Players advanced to the finals after defeating separate opponents in the category B2 semi-finals games of the 4th ALBAIK Team Tennis Challenge at the Al-Bilad Hotel tennis courts.
In the Ladies division, Reem Riviera was declared champion in the HMX category when their opponent ABTC Ladies team defaulted on the deciding game of their tied best of three series due to lack of players.
DJ Auto Parts broke the game wide open in the third set as team captain Marlon Ordono with partner Ruben Alzate scored an amazing 8-3 win over a fighting DP World tandem of Bennie Oandasan and Joel Chan to give a 2-1 set score advantage and a plus 5 points cushion. First set was won by DP World as Darrell Eltagonde and Allan Bergoza closed out on tie-break against Prins Narra and Ben Consolacion while the second set was controlled by DJ Auto as Nour Panizales and Romeo Espino clawed their way from a 5-7 deficit to tie at 7-7 and win the tie-break over Choy Argarin and Ador Olivo for a tied 1-1 score after the second set. In the crucial fourth set with DJ Auto needing only four points to win, Ramil Abdua and Edwin Calara closed out the match at 4-1 against Andres and Arnel Gapate to bring DJ Auto Parts into the finals.
Red Sea Tennis Players (RSTP) on the other hand had a better time in the semi’s as they needed only to go through two sets of play against Ace Breakers Tennis Club (ABTC). First set was won by ABTC as Egay Go and Nilo Borata pounded Housam I-Basha and Ron Valdez to submission with an 8-5 score. A costly ploy by ABTC to put their default tandem in the second set made them pay dearly as RSTP’s pair of Khalid and Vic Alvaran was awarded an 8-0 victory to tie the match at 1-1 with a plus 5 points for RSTP.
In the third set RSTP’s Ronnie “Men” Santos and Wayne “Beh” Cruz made sure victory would be theirs as they controlled the game with Santos’ tricky lobs and drop shots and Cruz dishing out crisp overhead smashes much to the dismay of ABTC’s Roel Manarang and Cliff Castaneda. RSTP won the set at 8-4 to lead 2-1 sets with a nine-point score lead which was more than enough to take them to the finals. The fourth set between Edwin Potestad and August Talavera of RSTP and Gilbert Bruno with Sol Bartolome was no longer played.
Other semifinals results in category C: Uricane defeated RSTP and Flexpack beat Tropapips to set up a finals toss-up between Uricane and Flexpack. In B1 finals match-up, Alfredo’s will match its prowess against RSTP and in the Middle Mixed (MMX), Sarimanok will be pitted against RSTP. In the Lower Mixed (LMX) category, the semi-finals still has to be played as of posting time.