Finishing the first weekend of the UAAP Tennis tournament was the one-sided matchup between the tennisters of National University and Ateneo de Manila University. The final game of the day ultimately ended in similar fashion to Ateneo’s defeat against UP, a 4-1 match in favour of NU.
Leading the incumbent champion’s attack was Fritz Verdad who decimated ADMU’s Vernon Huibonhoa’s battle plan to end the match in a double 6-0 win. The NU Tennisters, however, suffered a setback at the hands of Ino Canlas who dispatched NU’s Ean Lazaro- described by Ateneo’s Gio Bilog as NU’s strongest tennister- in a 7-5, 6-3.
The loss of Lazaro, however, seemed to have been a minor hiccup for the Sampaloc-based squad as they were quickly able to bounce back. NU’s duo of Mikoy Madrio and Jigo Peña beat Anton Punzalan and Erj Gatdula, 6-4, 6-4. Joining the Bulldog duo’s success were Alcantara and Accion who also took care of their Atenean assignments Johann Exconde and AJ Rivero, 6-4, 6-3.
Putting the final nail in the Ateneo coffin was NU’s Deo Talatayod who defeated Ralph Antonio in a 6-1, 6-3 match to finish the day.
The victory of NU places them ahead of the pack after their success over UE on the first day. Ateneo’s loss puts them at the bottom half to join the squads of DLSU and UE who all remain winless after the first weekend.
