On the first day of the UAAP Men’s Lawn Tennis Tournament, the DLSU Green Tennisters were able to defeat the AdMU Blue Eagles, 4-1, at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Courts, a good start for a team that has championship aspirations this season.
Following the victory, third year player Betto Orendain was more than happy with the level his team played at in all their matches. “Everything that we practiced showed up today, we didn’t do anything in particular,” he said. “It was just that everything that we did to prepare; all the good habits and the bad habits that we changed, we just remained confident and had faith.”
To start, captain Kyle Parpan led the way for the team as he was able to easily get past Ateneo’s Marcen Gonzales. The Atenean was just unable to find his serve as Parpan won in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2. Orendain, on the other hand, struggled early, trailing 1-4 against Bong Gonzales. He, however, managed to step up his game after finding a good rhythm halfway through the first set, defeating his opponent in straight sets as well, 7-5, 6-1.
As for the doubles matches, the first match of the day was spearheaded by Hans Asistio and Raphael Teng, who played against Julian Dayrit and Anton Punzalan. The pair played its opponents pretty well but was just unable to win the big points as they were defeated, 7-5, 7-6, which ended up being La Salle’s only loss of the day.
In the second doubles match, however, DLSU got a first victory from the team of Qoqo Allian and Jonah Cano, who defeated Erj Gatdula and Luke Flores. The team from Katipunan tried their best to keep DLSU from clinching the win, but La Salle prevailed, 7-6, 6-1. The win clinched the tie for the Green Tennisters.
While the result of the tie was already decided, LA Cañizares and Ino Canlas still put on a show in an exciting last match that saw the two trading blows. In the first set, the Lasallian had his way as he easily dispatched Canlas, 6-1. In the second set, however, Canlas returned the favor as he won the second set, 6-1, as well. Finally, in the final set of the day, Cañizares was able to outclass and outhustle his counterpart for a 6-3 set win.
The Green Tennisters continue their season tomorrow at 8 am, against last year’s runner-up, the UST Growling Tigers.
