Treat Huey and Ruben Gonzales won their all-Filipino clash with Jeson Patrombon and Francis Casey Alcantara, 6-1, 6-4, for Philippine tennis’ first gold in the 31st Southeast Asian Games on Saturday at Hanaka Sports and Service Center in Vietnam.
It was sweet revenge for the duo of Huey and Gonzales, who lost to Patrombon and Alcantara during the 2019 edition of the games in the Philippines.
It was the first gold medal of the Filipinos in tennis in these games, to go with the silver of Patrombon and Alcantara and four bronze medals in the women’s singles courtesy of Alex Eala, mixed doubles (Huey and Eala), men’s (Huey, Patrombon and Eric Olivarez Jr.) and women’s team (Eala, Marian Jade Capadocia, Shaira Hope Rivera, and Jenaila Rose Prulla) events.
“It was great to have the PH team in the finals for the sure gold, just like three years ago. Today we played really well, Ruben and I came out strong and with a lot of energy, and from the first point on and we’re happy to get the win. It was a great week for the team events, singles, mixed, everybody in the team had a really good week, so we’re happy to finish here with gold in the men’s doubles,” said Huey.
After a dominant first set, Huey and Gonzales closed out the second set with the former serving the gold medal-clinching point after their Filipino rivals made it an interesting game at 3-5.
Gonzales said: “It’s always great to win the tournament, but especially with a great friend like Treat to do it together for my first gold, this is my fourth finals, and to finally get it done, it feels really good. Obviously, congratulations to our teammates, they’re like a family to us, it was a great result for them too.”
The champions turned back Vietnam’s Giang Trinh Linh and Mihn Tuan Pham in the semifinal, 6-4, 6-2, on Friday, while Patrombon and Alcantara hammered a 6-4, 6-4 triumph over another Vietnamese tandem, Quoc Khan Le and Văn Phuong Nguyen in the other semis match to set a second straight championship showdown with Gonzales and Huey.
This is the country’s 45th gold of the Games and the national tennis team closed out their campaign with one gold, one silver, and four bronzes.
