With skills and undying passion taking center stage, the DLSU Green Tennisters and their UE counterparts took to the courts of the Olivarez Sports Center to finish off their first round assignments. Fate seemed to have sided with the Green Tennisters as despite numerous hard-fought matches, they eventually came out on top after winning a do-or-die matchup that ended 3-2.
Starting the offensive was Alberto Villamor who swiftly delivered 6-3, 6-0 against UE’s Rodolfo Estano to draw first blood. Estano’s defeat, however, was soon redeemed by UE’s Rodolfo Barquin who beat La Salle’s LA Canizares after putting up a great display of defensive play which made an irritated Canizares remark, “Pader ata tong kalaban ko! Balik ng balik ang bola!”, during the match which ended 5-7, 5-7.
Their singles matches were followed by the doubles matches of Dale Gorospe and Akiko Sy who fell against UE’s Jelic Amazona and Rolly Saga after a one sided 0-6, 1-6 matchup. Their matches were soon followed by the doubles melee between DLSU’s Ernesto Pantua and Qoqo Allian who faced off against UE’s Menrado Soriano and Nan Olo, in a three-set match that ended 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 in favor of DLSU.
With the score tied at 2-2, both sides were forced to engage in a do-or-die match with DLSU’s Kyle Parpan and UE’s Joshua Kinaadman battling it out to decide the winner. Initially a close match, Parpan blasted through Kinaadman during the latter part of their match to end it with a 6-4, 6-2 victory, sealing the win for DLSU.
