31st PCA Open to feature the country’s top netters

THE PHILIPPINES’ top tennis players are coming into the country fresh from competitions from all over the world for the coming PCA Open tennis championships.

Treat Huey, the 27-year-old anchor for the PH team in Davis Cup, Asian Games and Southeast Asian Games, will arrive Nov. 30, a day before the main draw. He is currently ranked 35th in doubles in the world.

Winner of two doubles titles this year, the University of Virginia stalwart is coming from a campaign in Charlottesville Challenger in his hometown where he reached the quarterfinals. He captured doubles ATP crown in Nottingham, England and Washington with partner Dominic Inglot.

Fellow Cupper Ruben Gonzales is arriving earlier on the 28th from a stint in Champaign Challenger in Illinois where he finished in the round of 16 in singles. The 27-year-old is ranked 813 in singles and 337 in doubles in the world.

Huey and Gonzales are competing for the first time in the 31st PCA Open, which is the oldest, most prestigious tennis championships in the country.

Joining them are Filipino-Germans Marc Sieber, who won the singles title in 2010, and teenaged wonder Katharina Lehnert.

Sieber, the 24-year-old from Munich, has been tapped to play for the national team but encountered immigration problems. Ranked 513 in singles and 529 in doubles, Sieber won two Futures singles titles in Germany and one in Croatia last year.

Sieber, who also bagged doubles crowns in two Futures events this year, will plane in on Nov. 28. He reached quarterfinals in the Turkey Futures early this month.

Eighteen-year-old Lehnert has played in the country in junior competitions before but will debut in the PCA Open this year. She reached quarters in the $75,000 Ismaring Germany. Last August she won the $10,000 Braunschweig tourney also in Germany.

Joining them are homegrown Filipino world campaigners, 2009 Australian Open doubles juniors champ Francis Casey Alcantara and 2011 Australian Open juniors singles semifinalist Jeson Patrombon.

PH Cupper Johnny Arcilla will defend his men’s singles title—his sixth overall. Marian Jade Capadocia is the defending women’s singles champion.

Also seeing action in the Dec. 1 to 9 meet are PH Cupper PJ Tierro, Elbert Anasta, Clarice Patrimonio, Filipino-Italian Marc Reyes and top junior netter Jurence Zosimo Mendoza, who was last year’s runner up.