MARIAN JADE Capadocia pulled off a stunning 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Fil-German top seed Katharina Lehnert to clinch a second straight women’s singles title yesterday in the Philippine Columbian Association Open tennis championships presented by Cebuana Lhuillier.
Wisely slowing down the pace to suit her baseline game, the 17-year-old Capadocia watched as the impatient Lehnert blew a 3-1 lead in the third set before a jampacked gallery at the PCA shell-clay courts in Paco.
Serving to stay in the match, Lehnert rallied from 15-40 in the ninth game of the third to force deuce only to throw it all away by hitting two Capadocia moonballs long.
“I tried to be patient because I saw that she’s trying to rush things,” said Capadocia, who is expected to enroll at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles starting next year to take up fashion design.
Defending champion Johnny Arcilla was still locked in a tight battle with Fil-Am Ruben Gonzales in the men’s singles finals at presstime.
It was Capadocia’s 12th singles title this year counting four won in the United States, the recent Phinma juniors and the PCA Open Kia juniors.
“I’m very happy but I know that I can still do better,” added Capadocia, who became the first back-to-back women’s singles winner since Czarina Mae Arevalo, the 2002-2003 winner.
Lehnert got a measure of revenge as she teamed up with Fil-Am Toby Miclat to beat Marian Jade and sister Jella Jade Capadocia, 6-3, 6-1, for the women’s doubles title of the weeklong tournament sponsored by Cebuana Lhuillier, Kia, Dunlop, Head, Babolat, PCSO, Whirlpool and PVL Restaurants.
Francis Casey Alcantara and Ronard Joven, the 2009 champions, ruled the men’s doubles after beating Treat Huey, the world’s 35th-ranked doubles player, and former Philippine Tennis Association vice president Randy Villanueva, 6-3, 6-3.
Tennis patron Jean Henri Lhuillier and former Indonesian Cupper Andrian Raturandang beat Mike Misa and Randy Vale, 6-3, 2-6, (14-12), for the pro-am crown.