Seventeen-year-old Jasmine Tan Ho took the sting off young upstart Roxanne Rezma, 6-7 (9-7), 6-4, 6-4, in a marathon three-hour ladies final match to capture the 2nd MSC Open recently at the Makati Sports Club.
A junior Fed Cup member, Ho actually walked through a tough draw strewn with national team members and veteran campaigners to emerge victorious in the prestigious event sanctioned by the Philippine Tennis Association.
But the lean, hard-hitting Ho needed to dig deep in the championship battle, crawling back from a set down and reversing the momentum against the 15-year-old Rezma, who made the finals via sensational 7-5, 6-3 upset of top seed Aileen Rogan in the semifinals.
“I’m very happy to win the title because I know I worked very hard to earn it,” said Ho who chose to give away her P20,000 prize money to her ballboys.
Taken aback by Rezma’s boundless energy, Ho needed enough time to gather her wits and worked her way around her opponent’s attacking style of play.
“I knew I got the momentum after the second set and from then I knew exactly what to do,” Ho said.