Seed no. 1 Johnny Arcilla
BUTUAN’S Johnny Arcilla and Cebu’s Hannah Grace Espinosa will be vying for a chance to watch this year’s French Open at the famous red clay courts of the Roland Garros after clinching the Men’s and Women’s Open titles of the Peugeot Philippines Tennis Open – Cebu Leg which came to an end yesterday at the tennis courts of the Cebu Country Club (CCC) in Banilad, Cebu City.
Both tennisters, who are based in Manila, were not afforded an easy victory as they were taken to task by their opponents with top seeded Arcilla overcoming a slow start to defeat Cagayan de Oro’s Francis Casey Alcantara, seeded second, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, while the also top seeded Espinosa recovered from the onslaught of unseeded Maricel Mirabueno of Linamon, Lanao del Norte, 6-3, 6-4.
Hanna Grace Espinosa of the National University women’s tennis team
“I didn’t expect to win because it was a tough match against Mirabueno,” said Espinosa who considers the win as her first women’s open title.
Espinosa is playing for the National University (NU) which is the men’s and women’s University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) defending champion team.
Alcantara though is not going home without a win as he and his partner, Marc Norman Enriquez, dismissed the duo of Arcilla and Jan Godfrey Seno, who squandered two match points for the Men’s Doubles title, 6-3, 1-6, 11-9.
Likewise in the distaff side, Mirabueno won’t be going home empty-handed as she and doubles partner, Floreza Alesna of Bohol made mincemeat of the tandem of Ingrid Gonzales and Kendies Thea Malinis, 6-1, 6-1, for the title.
All winners in the regional legs received an all-expense paid trip to Metro Manila to see action in the national finals to be held this March, wherein the six grand winners of the singles and doubles events will get an all-expense paid trip to Paris, France to watch Stan Warinka and Serena Williams defend their French Open titles.
The Cebu leg is the 4th regional leg in this tournament with regional legs in Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod and Nueva Ecija already contested last year. Prior to the national finals, one more regional leg will be held—the NCR leg, happening from February 1 to 7 at the Valle Verde Country Club.
Seed no. 2 Frances Casey Alcantara
The country’s top netters—Philippine no.2 Arcilla and Philippine no.3 Alcantara did not disappoint as they regaled the spectators with an exciting game with Arcilla being his usual cool and stoic self while Alcantara protested several line calls.
Alcantara had gone to post a 2-0 lead in the first set before Arcilla managed to hold his serve to post his first point of the game.
However, Alcantara was on a roll and once again pulled ahead to a 4-1 advantage before Arcilla scored his second point.
The second seed went on to close out the first set in his favor at 6-4 and looked headed for the title when he immediately took a 2-0 lead in the second set with Arcilla committing his fifth double fault in the match.
Arcilla, however, took stock of his several unforced errors and seemed to have warmed up by managing to level the score at 3-all and then taking the lead for the first time in the match at 4-3 by breaking Alcantara’s serve.
Despite losing his cool over several line calls, Alcantara stayed in contention and even managed to level the macth at 5-all before bowing to Arcilla, who forced a deciding set at 7-5.
Alcantara once again posted the first point in the set but unlike in the previous sets, he was not able to pull away from Arcilla who once again broke his serve to lead the set at 3-2.
With Arcilla leading at 5-4, Alcantara was clearly beginning to be hobbled by cramps which seemed to have worsened as he was no longer able to return the serves of Arcilla, who eventually went on to win the title.
Maricel Mirabueno of Lanao Del Sur
The tournament is officiated by event organizer Francisco “Pet” Santos with the help of Mario Craiz as tournament supervisor, Philippine Tennis Association Central Visayas vice president Ken Salimbangon and Jun Tabs Tabura.
The top winners in each leg received P20,000 in this tournament which is also made possible by Smart Communications, Wilson and Total.
Peugeot is the official transport of the ATP World Tour and has been one of the major sponsors of the French Open in Roland Garros for 32 years.
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