Rondina, Gervacio give PH its first win in FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Manila Open
The
duo of SISI Rondina and Dzi Gervacio, the Philippines' best team bet in the
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Manila Open, swept United States' Lindsey
Fuller and Kaley Melville, 21-12, 21-16, at the start of the women's main draw
yesterday at the Sands SM By The Bay.
Although
first-time partners in the sand court, Rondina and Gervacio seemed to have
played together for so long, as the two used smart plays, solid attacking and
sharp service against the much-taller Americans to give the country the
much-needed win in the one-star tournament.
"We just
played. We didn’t look at their perceived advantage over us and we didn’t think
of how much bigger and taller they were,” said Rondina, who trained only with
Gervacio for two weeks but has apparently connected so well.
"What we
did was just showcase what we were capable of, what we could be proud of as
Filipinos in front of the crowd rooting for us,” she added.
Rondina is the
most experienced among Philippine team members, having played with Bernadeth
Pons in last year's 29th Southeast Asian Beach Volleyball Championships in
Singapore.
Other Filipinas
who are making their FIVB World Tour debut were not as fortunate as they
dropped their main draw openers.
DM Demontaño
and Jackie Estoquia bowed to top-ranked Michelle Amarilla and Erika Bobadilla
of Paraguay, 19-21, 13-21. Charo Soriano and Bea Tan were overwhelmed by
Japan's Ayumi Kusano and Takemi Nishibori, 10-21, 9-21, while Karen Quilario
and Lot Catubag lost to The Netherlands' Katja Stam and Julia Wouters, 13-21,
11-21.
Demontaño and
Estoquia were in control in the opening set, 12-9, but the Paraguayans rallied
to prevail and eventually win in straight sets.
Soriano and Tan
valiantly battled against the Japanese, who displayed superiority in every
skill.
Kusano however,
had kind words for Soriano and Tan, describing them as "Very good,"
during their FIVB World Tour debut.
This is
Kusano’s second appearance in the Philippines, having played for Japan that won
an invitational tournament at the air-conditioned Philsports Arena three years
ago.
Kusano and
partner Nishibori struggled with the hot weather, describing the outside court
as “very different” and the conditions as very difficult”.
As for the
Filipino men’s teams who were seeking the needed experience in international
play, they went winless in their respective men's main draw openers.
Calvin Sarte
and Jade Becaldo narrowly lost to Sweden's Martin Appelgren and Simon Boman,
24-26, 23-21, 13-15, while Ranran Abdilla and Edwin Tolentino dropped a similar
heartbreaking loss against Hong Kong's Kevin Lao Tsz Ho and Wong Pui Lam,
18-21, 22-20, 10-15.
Kevin Juban and
Raphy Abanto bowed to Austria's Florian Schetzer and Daniel Mullner, 10-21,
14-21, while KR Guzman and James Pecaña also took a straight sets loss to
Chinese-Taipei's Wang Chin-Ju and Hsieh Ya-Jen, 20-22, 14-21.d
Rounds of 12 in
both men’s and women’s divisions and the quarterfinals are the focus of action
tomorrow, May 5, in two courts at The Sands from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The event is
promoted by E-Plus Global Sdn Bhd and organized by Beach Volleyball Republic
Inc.
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