Friday, June 01, 2007 Lagman snares fourth 12-Under title
JACOB Lagman wrapped up his summer tennis outing with a big win as he captured the title in the Olivarez Head Penn Tennis Tournament yesterday in Parañaque City.
LAGMAN, of St. Benedict Childhood Learning Center, needed just a little over thirty minutes to defeat Hans Asistio, 6-1, 6-0, to take the Boys 12-Under crown.
The title is Lagman’s fourth in the 12-Under division for the summer. He won the title in Truflex, Nenita Daza and Head Penn Baguio and also fished one runnerup diadem in this division and a couple of others in an older age group.
Lagman’s summer outing is a combination of emotions with impressive wins mixed with unexpected losses.
It was during this summer when Lagman tripped over for the first time in the Boys 12-Under division. Lagman, the country’s top-ranked player in this division, absorbed a heartbreaking upset against John Ribaya in the final round of the Toby’s Sports Festival. It was also during this competition where he suffered a double loss when he dropped his championship match in the Boys 14 class.
However, the loss was overturned when he topped the Nenita Daza tournament, which was a Group 1 competition. He blanked all of his opponents in this tournament. Another reason to celebrate was when Jacob, together with his older brother Julius, dominated their respective divisions in Baguio last week.
Lagman also competed in this year’s Palarong Pambansa in Koronadal, South Cotabato, losing in the elementary finals to an opponent who was allegedly over-aged.
Lagman ended his summer sojourn still confidently perched on top of the 12-Under division and, despite his runners up finishes in the Boys 14, he still managed to earn points to have a better standing in Boys 14.
The new list of national rankings will be released by the Philippine Tennis Association next month.
Meanwhile, Lagman will arrive back home in time for the school year to start next week but will once more embark in another tournament, the Olivarez Age Group, which is slated in the middle of June in Manila.
While playing in Head Penn, a tennis director from Korea spotted Lagman, and was so impressed that he invited Lagman to Korea to take part in their age group competition together with other Filipino age groupers. (MCB)
