NANJING—Second seed Jurence Mendoza breezed past Hong Kit Wong of Hong Kong yesterday, 6-1, 6-2, to reach the semifinals of boys’ tennis in the second Asian Youth Games.
The 17-year-old Mendoza dropped the first game of the opening set then quickly recovered to take the next six games. After a 2-0 start in the second set, he dropped the next two then swept his opponent away with his steady baseline game.
Since there is no battle for the bronze medal in tennis, Mendoza, No. 89 in the world youth rankings, has now secured another podium finish for the country after the gold and silver in girls’ golf the other day courtesy of Mia Legaspi and Princess Superal.
In the semis, Mendoza will face either Roman Khassanov of Kazakhstan, ranked 473 in the world and unseeded here, or Garvit Batra of the International Olympic Athletes.
Batra, No. 244 in the world and also unseeded here, is from India, but since his country is under suspension by the IOC, he and his countrymen here compete under the AOI flag.
“I briefly lost focus in the match. But when I broke him in the (third game) first set it got my confidence going,” said Mendoza, a freshman at UP Diliman.
“We’re in the semis now. I want to win the gold medal here,” said Mendoza who played before PH officials led by chef de mission Tac Padilla and deputy CDM Jonne Go.
The 3-on-3 basketball team of Isaac Go, Patrick Ramirez and Andrei Caracut was hoping to reach the semifinal against Iran at presstime.
Over at Nanjing Olympic Stadium, Fil-American twins Kayla and Kyla Richardson fell short in their bid for a medal in the girls’ 100m dash.
Kayla, who ruled her heat at 12.21 seconds, landed fifth in the finals at 12.30 while Kyla, third in her heat at 12.28, finished sixth.
Chinese Ge Manqui took the gold in 11.91 seconds. Silver went to Thai Charoensuk Sintaksib (12.19) and bronze to Chinese Song Min (12.26).
The father of the twins, Jeff Richardson, said if this meet was held earlier in May or June, Kayla and Kyla could have done better “because they were at their peak then,” he said.
Long jumper Mary Anthony Diesto and pole vaulter Emily Obiena improved on their personal bests but were never in contention. Diesto was seventh in a field of 11 in Group B with a jump of 5.24 meters while Obiena cleared 3.10m and broke her old Philippine youth record of 3.00m.
In swimming, Catherin Bondad was third in heat 2 of the girls’ 200m back in 2:30.31, Chloe Daos was fifth in heat 1 of the girls’ 100m butterfly in 1:06.57 while Jeremy Lim was also fifth in heat 3 of boys’ 100m butterfly in 58.10.
Shooter Enrique Gazmin was way off in the boys’ 10m air pistol, posting 528 points for 31st place. Also in action at presstime yesterday was taekwondo’s Francis Agojo in the boys’ 53 kg.