Saturday, May 10, 2008
Top seeds face No. 3 in doubles finals
THE top doubles tandem in the country will battle it out with the third seed in the Cebuana Lhuillier Men’s Open Doubles tournament at Baseline Restaurant.
Top seeds, Arcilla and Tierro, will go head on with third seed Elbert Anasta and Yannick Guba after defeating the Ruel brothers, 6-1, 6-3, in yesterday’s semifinals.
The injured Arcilla, with pain throbbing on his right thigh, used his powrful line drives to pressure the Ruel brothers in their victory that lasted just under an hour.
After taking a 5-1 lead, Tierro got three set points with three quick aces before a double fault allowed the Ruel brothers to go 40-15. However, an errant return in the next service put an early end to the first set.
The match got competitive in the second set when the Ruel brothers managed to tie Arcilla and Tierro at 2-2 before the brothers finally took a taste of the lead at 3-2.
However, the Ruels failed to sustain their hold and hit a return long to allow the top seeds to even the match at 3-all.
Drive
The top seeds then nailed the brothers at 40-15 in the final three games for their victory, with Tierro punctuating the win with a drive to the corner that had the younger Ruel fumbling and failing to hit a return.
Despite Arcilla nursing a ham string injury, one of the factors of his quarterfinal exit the other day, Tierro, who will also be in the singles finals isn’t too worried going to today’s finals.
“We’ve been partners since 2003,” Tierro said in Filipino, “I really don’t think that would matter.”
Against Anasta and Guba, who is also in the singles finals, the No. 1 pair won’t ease off a bit.
“We won’t take chances,” Arcilla said, “Me and my partner will have to communicate well in tomorrow’s game.”
Tierro said that although they are the top seed, Guba is the favorite.
“He’s been playing well two weeks straight,” he said, “Yannick has become the favorite because of how well he’s been playing.” (UP Mass Comm Intern Rachel Chloe Palang)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (May 10, 2008 issue)
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