B'day girl Patrimonio beats Japanese netter

Anna Clarice Patrimonio gifted herself a big birthday present as she downed qualifier Sari Baba of Japan, 7-5, 6-3, Wednesday at the resumption of the rain-interrupted first round of the Phinma Juniors International’s Week 1 at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center. The victory came on the heels of the Filipino bets’ romp in the ITF Grade 4 tournament as top seed Francis Casey Alcantara rolled past Chinese Jan Nan Tao, 6-2, 6-2, while Kim Ivor Saraza pulled off a big upset over third seed Omar Elkheshen of Egypt, 7-5, 6-2, in the boys’ side late Tuesday.

Patrimonio, who turned 16 on Wednesday, will meet Southeast Asian Games rival sixth seed Trang Huynh Phuong Dai of Vietnam, who made it through with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Rona Lavian of Israel, in the second round. Leander Lazaro, 16, also advanced to the next round with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 win over German Louis Donczyk. Alcantara, who gained the top seeding following the last-minute withdrawal of Hsieh Cheng-peng of Taiwan, flaunted his power game and came through with solid returns to dominate Tao and kick off his bid for a third crown in the event featuring some of the world's future net stars. The Australian Open Juniors doubles champion takes on Italy's No. 2 player Antonio Marcarelli in the next round. Marcarelli booted out Thailand's Sylvester Alamdar, 7-5, 6-1. Saraza, on the other hand, dished a gem of a game to topple Elkheshen and arrange a second round meeting with Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka, who beat Belgian Jeroen Vanneste, 6-4, 6-0, in the lower half of the draw. Anna Christine Patrimonio, meanwhile, survived Japanese Riko Sawayanagi, 6-3, 7-5, to make up for the string of setbacks suffered by three RP bets in the distaff side. Patricia Jay Orteza, Marian Jane Capadocia and Fil-Am Tamitha Nguyen all dropped their opening round assignments last Tuesday. But Alcantara, Saraza, Lazaro and the Patrimonio sisters’ victories sparked hopes for the local bets' surge in the tournament. - GMANews.TV