Three more champions crowned

Action in the 2004 Verizon Tennis Cup came to an end Saturday with three more players stamping their names as champions of their divisions.

Leading the cast was Renato Espanola, who despite playing in his second singles match of the day, proved to have just enough juice left in him to beat Elmer Guzman in comeback fashion in the Men’s Singles 4.0 at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.

Espanola earlier earned his ticket to the division finale by defeating Ronnie Lacbayo in the semifinal.

He seemed to be affected by his battle with Lacbayo as he struggled in the early goings against Guzman, who controlled most part of the opening set and eventually found himself a set-win away from being champion with an easy 6-2 win.

Espanola, however, was not ready to quit. He dug deep into his tank and found extra fuel to bust his way back into contention with a strong second set effort. Running on desperation mode, Espanola managed to even the match with a 6-3 win.

Guzman tried to shake off Espanola’s run, but found little success as Espanola sucked up every bit of energy left in him to pull off the impressive comeback with a 6-3 clincher.

Also engraving his name in the list of champions was Babu Malayil, who like Espanola, staved off an early deficit and fought hard down the stretch to edge Mike Roberts in three sets.

Malayil, who in the day before placed second with partner Agnes Salazar in the Mixed Doubles 3.0, was off to a sub-par start and found himself in a hole after Roberts took the first set 6-4.

Roberts had a decent shot at capturing the title in straight sets, but Malayil pulled the right strings to keep his hopes alive and level the score at a set apiece with a nail-biting 7-5 win.

The two displayed sheer determination in the final set as both refused to give way and ripped out respectable attacks, but Malayil proved to be the better of the two for the day as he again edged Roberts 7-5 to cap a successful tournament run.

In the only remaining female match, Arlene Osma had her way against Mina Solomon and cruised to bagging the Singles 3.0 title in straight sets.

After breezing to a 6-3 first set win, Osma kicked into higher gear and fulfilled her goal with a 6-2 clincher.

The three along with champions and runners-up in the other divisions will be recognized for their efforts during an award ceremony on August 28.