JEDDAH — Team Red downed Team Blue in the first of the three sets played during their semifinal match of the SPTC HeatWave Tennis Challenge at new venue Albilad Hotel tennis courts. In Team Red's first doubles, Waymor Carmelotes and Celso Abella stepped up their games early on by winning the first three games before the Blue pair of Fred Masangkay and CQ Quilenderino recovered to make it 2-3. Again, the Red doubles rattled in 2 straight points to come up with a 5-2 lead. But the Blue pair kept closing in and leveled the score at 5-5 after the 10th game. However Carmelotes and Abella regained their composure and broke the service of Team Blue's Quilenderino in the 12th after holding their serve in the 11th to wrest the lead (7-5), which triggered a sort of wake-up call for Masangkay and Quilenderino. They rallied and tied the games at 7-7 by breaking the serve of Red's Carmelotes in the 13th and Masangkay holding his serve in the 14th. In the ensuing tiebreaker, Carmelotes and Abella ended the streak of catchup winners by the Blue's pair, as they mounted a late charge to finish off the first set with a 7-3 decision for Team Red. In the second set, Rick Maulion and Zaldy Gabriel of Team Blue started in a turtle-pace rhythm, got bumped with a threatening 4-1 lead by Eman Usman and Sherwin Nervais of Team Red after the first five games before they rolled on to pick up winners. The Blue pair recovered from 1-4, found their range and shots, and launched a fightback that helped them gain control over the rest of the games till the match ended at 8-4 in favor of Team Blue. The second set win put them at 1-1 against Team Red. In the third set singles match, Gilbert Gochuico of Team Blue made his mark by registering his first ever singles win by routing Team Red's Fernan Roxas, 6-2. Gochuico started controlling the first two games with a break and a hold, but Roxas did the same in the third and fourth games to level it at 2-2. Then, Team Blue's Gochuico took control of the match with a string of game points to make it 6-4 for Blue team's advantage over Red at 2 sets to 1. In the fourth set, Team Red's Ali Callanta and Yousuf Adriatico faced the daunting task of rescuing their group from the brink of 1-3 defeat against the Blue doubles of Gary Bautro and Ariel Domingo. At the start of the set, the Red's pair had difficulty hitting return shots against the booming serves of Domingo, who delivered an ace from the second serve and took away the first game at 40-love. Trailing 0-1, Callanta and Adriatico then worked out their baseline shots with good prevision and consistency, winning their serves in the second and fourth games with breaks in the second and fifth games to surge past the Blue pair to 4-1 lead. The Red's pair then retained their lead (5-3, 6-4, and 7-5). Team Red's Callanta and Adriatico ended the match, 8-5, and leveled the score at 2-2 against Team Blue. The fifth set was a damper for team Red. Uly Bartolata did not show up to play against Team Blue's Mike Amerol and Rolly Saldana, though his partner, Mario Betorio, was present. Thus, Team Blue was declared winner by default at three sets to one.
