MANILA, Philippines — On a day of heavy losses, it was 14-year-old Chrislyn Colleen Sioson—not Alberto Lim Jr—who kept the fight alive for the Philippines.
Age-group stalwart Sioson fought through her opponent’s booming shots and the sun’s searing heat to hack out a 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (8-6) victory over American Samantha Ericka Gonzalo Tuesday in the opening round of the Mitsubishi Lancer international junior tennis championships.
The 8th grader from Academy of Queen Mary in Bataan gave the crowd at Rizal Memorial Tennis Center something to cheer about after its best bet Lim suffered a shocking defeat to lucky loser Jack Hong Kit Wong of Hong Kong, 6-3, 6-2.
Lim, 14, stormed to 3-0 in the opening set but inexplicably sputtered soon after and allowed Wong to get into his game.
Wong lost the qualifying final to Filipino Vince Russell Salas (3-6, 7-5, 6-1) last Monday.
Later, a dejected Lim, whose tennis-playing family called for a presser for him to announce his new management firm, slumped in his chair and massaged his right shoulder.
“I may have pulled something; after 3-1, I couldn’t hit forehands anymore,” said Lim, who split from his long-time coach Manny Tecson to sign up with Florida-based L’Academie de Tennis.
Tecson watched his former ward across the court from Lim’s new mentor American Ollie Townsend. Tecson’s new ward, Eric Olivarez Jr., lost to Canada’s Jack Van Slyke, 6-4, 6-4.
The entire PH boys delegation was wiped out including Salas, who went down fighting before dropping a 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (8-6) to fellow qualifier Joshua Liu of Singapore.
Biting the dust in the opening day were Jerome Romualdez, who bowed to Hong Kong’s Andrew Yin Hei, 6-2, 6-1;
Andrew Joshua Cano, who lost to New Zealand’s William Matheson, 6-2, 6-2; Joachim Samson, who yielded to Australia’s Brian Tran, 6-3, 6-0; and Dave Sebastian, who dropped to United States’ Sameer Kumar, 6-2, 6-0.
Marcen Angelo Gonzales suffered cramps and had to retire against Great Britain’s Lewis Roskilly, 4-6, 4-3.
Bryan Decasa was ousted by Lee Kuan-yi of Chinese Taipei, 6-1, 6-0 In the girls’ division, top PH bet Roxanne Resma lost to Yukina Saigo of Japan, 6-1, 6-1, and Batang Pinoy champ Jana Marie Pages bowed to Chloe Hule of Australia, 6-1, 6-4.