UAAP: Tennisters stumble on opening weekend

The DLSU Green Tennisters, the former third placers of the UAAP Men’s Tennis competition, started UAAP Season 76 with tough losses at the hands of the UP Fighting Maroons, 3-2, on January 11 and the UST Growling Tigers, 3-2, the following day at Olivarez College.

Their female counterparts, the Lady Tennisters, dropped their opening assignment against the NU Lady Bulldogs as well, 4-1.

Opening weekend jitters

Qoqo Allian started the singles for DLSU with a loss against UP’s Joshua Cano, 6-2 and 6-1. UP’s Jurence Mendoza quickly followed it up with a sweep against La Salle’s Agustin Cruz, 6-0, for both sets.

LA Canizanes was the man of the hour for La Salle as he defeated UP’s Angelo Esguerra in a nail-biting 7-6 and 6-2 win. He was the only winner for La Salle throughout the duration of the singles matches.

The start of the doubles matches looked promising as La Salle’s duo of Estoy Pantua and Kyle Parpan were in control early on; however, UP’s combination of Joshua Miranda and Enrique Ferrer gained the upper hand in the end, winning with scores of 6-2 and 6-4.

Green Tennisters Alberto Villamor and Hans Asistio, on the other hand, managed to steal a win against UP’s duo of Franklin Encarnacion and Miguel Belda in the following match, 6-1 and 7-6.

Paced by victories from singles action by Canizares and in the doubles match by Villamor and Asistio, the Green Tennisters registered two victories, but lost the other three matches against UST. Pantua, Parpan, Allian and Cruz were unable to put up points for DLSU’s cause.

The five games of the Lady Tennisters were unfavorable as a whole, but Regina Santiago emerged as their lone bright spot, chalking up a victory for the squad. Rachelle de Guzman, Lynette Palasan, Dasha Bautista, Princess Castillo, Nikki Arandia and Marinel Rudas were all unsuccessful in their respective matches.

Room for improvement

“First week talaga, we knew it was going to be a tough weekend,” shares DLSU’s head coach Roland Kraut. “But I didn’t think there was a possibility of losing the first three matches.”

“We played our best, but there’s something lacking pa,” team captain Pantua expressed.

The Green Tennisters and Lady Tennisters have to work harder as they slipped during their respective season openers. Before they started the season, they had high hopes for themselves and they have championship aspirations.

“It’s gonna be tough for the men’s squad because they’re now down zero-to-two and it will be hard to go to the finals because there is no final four,” Kraut explained.

The team remains optimistic of their championship aspirations as they look to bounce back from a depressing opening weekend.

“Si Coach naman, I know he’s smart. He’s gonna figure something out to make us better in training and siguro yung mental preparation rin kailangan,” said Pantua.