“Three-time UAAP Women’s Tennis Champion and Two-time Women’s Tennis Most Valuable Player.” Christine Patrimonio can now add that to her blossoming resume.
Last Saturday, the older of the National University’s Patrimonio sisters gave her school a taste of championship gold for the third straight year after prevailing against the University of Santo Tomas’ Macy Gonzales in two sets, 6-2 and 6-3.
“Di ko muna inisip yung three-peat o na mananalo ako. I just played and focused on my game,” said Patrimonio, when asked to comment about her performance in her dominant exit from the season.
“I’m very happy for our team. We worked very hard to achieve this 3-peat.”
Tin had little trouble disposing of her opponent in the first set of the season’s final matchup, but faced some trouble in the second, giving graduating UST senior Gonzales a way to prolong the matchup. Gonzales was able to force Patrimonio into a couple of errors that let her add some points to her side of the scoreboard. Patrimonio admits that, for a while, she had lost her focus and composure in the heated second set. “Noong last few games na medyo nagmadali ako kaya nagka-errors.”
Patrimonio was later given the Most Valuable Player’s trophy, an award which her younger sister and teammate Clarice had won last season. The older Patrimonio went through her nine matches in the season without a single loss, en route to winning the coveted championship for the second time. She also won the award in Season 76 after leading the Lady Bulldogs to the first of their three consecutive championships.
Present at the sidelines was Alvin Patrimonio, father of the famed sister act and former 4-time PBA MVP. But on that Saturday morning, all eyes were on the basketball legend’s daughters, on the cusp of solidifying their status as legends-in-the-making in their own sport.
The day’s biggest star has simple and concise advice for her younger teammates – the generation that will one day be tasked to continue what she and her sister have started after they’ve left the collegiate field – just before she takes a much-deserved break following another dominant season:
“I just keep telling them to do their best, to keep doing their thing. Wag nila pansinin yung iba.”
