South Africans oust Reyes, Patrombon

Jeson Patrombon and Filipino-Italian Marc Reyes gave it their all but in the end fell to the much superior pair from South Africa to bow out in the doubles semifinals Friday in the F1 Futures in Eilat, Israel.

Third seeds Jean Andersen and Ruan Roelofse dominated the first set and held off a serious challenge in the second set for a 6-2, 7-5 victory.

Patrombon and Reyes nearly forced a deciding set after leading, 5-4, in the second set.

But after a thrilling exchange which saw Patrombon hitting a seemingly perfect volley return to Roelofse’s body, the South African eluded it and hammered a volley of his own to an unmanned portion of the court to tie the match at 5-5.

With Patrombon serving, the PH netters took a 30-0 edge only to see Andersen and Roelofse come back and get a 40-30 upper hand. The 18-year-old Filipino managed to force a deuce but Andersen returned strongly for 6-5, before Roelofse used his big serves to close it out.

Patrombon and Reyes claimed one ATP point each for making the semifinals, while Iligan City native upped his ATP singles points to 10 after winning the first round in singles.