I was 10 years old when what I considered the greatest comeback in Philippine tennis history happened in the Davis Cup on February 1988.
I followed the tie against Japan closely because I was curious to see how one of my favorites, 18-year-old Ringo Navarrosa, would fare in his first Davis Cup appearance.
Unlike today, when a single click gives us immediate access to the results of sporting events, we did not get the NBA or Davis Cup results on the same day the matches were played.
Primetime news rarely reported on sports, while the late-night news, which aired way past my bedtime, covered little beyond the PBA. Imagine the anxiety of going through an entire day without knowing whether your favorite team or athlete had won or lost. ONEChampionship Tickets
Disappointed but not at all surprised, I picked up a copy of Tempo on a Saturday and found out that we had lost the first two singles matches at the Philippine Columbian Association indoor shell court.
Already a clear underdog against a Japanese team it had not beaten in 24 years, the Philippines was also missing three outstanding young players.
Manny Tolentino, the country’s top player, had refused to train under national team coach Butch Bacani and instead wanted to be coached by his father. Tolentino, then 21, had reached a career-high world ranking of No. 437 in 1987. A former world No. 1 junior player, he had also represented the Philippines at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Philta, the country’s tennis governing body, dropped Tolentino from the national team and suspended him for six months.
Felix Barrientos, a 1985 Wimbledon junior semifinalist, and Roland So were also unavailable as they were on athletic scholarships at Louisiana State University. Barrientos and So helped LSU reach the finals of the US NCAA tournament that same year.
Japan, meanwhile, was a team in transition. Shozo Shiraishi, who played singles when Japan reached the World Group in 1985, was already retired from national team duty, while former world No. 177 Tsuyoshi Fukui had been promoted to non-playing captain. Emerging star Shuzo Matsuoka, then 20, was not included in the lineup.
Fukui instead arrived in Manila with Toshihisa Tsuchihashi, who was ranked No. 359 in the world that year, and Shigeru Ota, who had reached a career-high ranking of No. 509.
The disparity in rankings was evident on Day 1.
Bong Battad, who had been ranked No. 773 in the world in 1986, fell to Tsuchihashi, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2. Navarrosa proved easy pickings for Ota, losing 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.
I thought that was it for the Philippines.
Our best doubles tandem, Rod Rafael and Raymond Suarez, appeared to have only a slim chance against former world No. 236 Hitoshi Shirato and Eiji Takeuchi, who had reached No. 241.
Rafael was unranked in doubles, while Suarez sat outside the world’s top 650. Shirato was fresh from competing in the Australian Open doubles event and had also played at Wimbledon in 1984. Takeuchi would make his Australian Open debut in 1989.
Rafael and Suarez, however, were unfazed by their opponents’ superior credentials.
Energized by the Filipino fans who packed the PCA stands on Day 2, they overcame a first-set loss to shock the Japanese pair, 9-11, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
Battad then opened Day 3 by stunning Ota, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, leveling the tie at two wins apiece.
Everything came down to the deciding singles match. Navarrosa had been stricken with fever, leaving Rafael as the logical and safer replacement. Rafael had compiled a 4-3 singles record in Davis Cup play since 1985.
Bacani, however, rolled the dice with a gutsy decision. He chose to field Suarez, who was better known as a doubles specialist.
Bacani knew what he was doing. Just the year before, Suarez had surprised the field at the PCA Open, widely considered the country’s most prestigious tournament. He had thumped Tolentino in the final in straight sets.
Familiarity with the PCA court, coupled with his booming serves, propelled Suarez to pull off the unthinkable. He defeated Tsuchihashi, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, completing an improbable comeback for the Philippines.
I found out about the result on a Monday and was inspired to head to the court after class that day to play. For the next two weeks, the Davis Cup comeback was the talk of everyone at our tennis club.
In my mind, that was as good as it could get for Philippine tennis—the best possible achievement I would ever witness in the Davis Cup.
I was wrong.
Three years later, the Philippines again defeated Japan and then downed China to qualify for the World Group for the first and only time.
Another memorable comeback came in 2010, when the Philippines recovered from another 0-2 deficit to defeat host South Korea in Changwon.
Those two memories, however, deserve their own articles.
