Entering the clay courts of the Olivarez Sports Center last January 25, the winless ADMU Blue Tennisters once again faced an all-too-familiar sight as they were brought down to their knees by the Recto-based UE Tennisters. Regardless of giving their all, the ailing the ADMU Tennisters suffered a 1-4 loss to start the day’s men’s category matches.
Leading Ateneo’s defense against the intense attack of UE was Ino Canlas who successfully defeated UE’s Rodolfo Barquin in an edgy three-set match which finished 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. His victory, however, seemed to have ushered the beginning of numerous Atenean losses as his fellow singles competitor Ralph Antonio ultimately fell against UE’s Joshua Kinaadman in a double 2-6 match finish. Iyo Canlas on the other hand was forced to retire against UE’s Rogelio Estaño in the latter part of their second set face off to prematurely finish the match 3-6, 5-4.
The doubles category did not bring any good news either as the duo of Angelo Rivero and Johann Esconde joined their downed comrades in a one-sided match against UE’s John Saga and Jeleardo Amazona which resulted in a 3-6, 1-6 match in favor of UE. The match of ADMU’s Anton Punzalan and Ernesto Gatdula against UE’s Ivan Olo and Dan Sison resulted in nothing better compared to the fate of the other Atenean tennisters as they eventually fell in a close three-set match, 6-3, 5-7, 3-6.
The loss of Ateneo against UE leaves them at the bottom of the standings and as the only team to still remain winless.
