Curtains drawing a close at Toyota

The 2nd Annual Toyota Tennis Tournament, sponsored by Microl Corp. and organized by the Saipan Tennis Association, is close to wrapping up its three-week run and will hold an awards banquet tomorrow afternoon at the American Memorial Park tennis courts beginning at 5:30pm.

The stage was set for the curtains to come down less than 48 hours from now when nine semifinal matches took a bow Wednesday, leaving only the semis of mixed doubles 4.0 and half of the penultimate rounds of the men’s 4.5 and 3.0 to be decided.

Peter Loyola and Ji Hoon Heo teamed up to win the men’s open doubles championship a week ago but find themselves on opposite sides of the court when they face each other for the men’s open singles championship set for tonight.

Heo joined his teammate Loyola after getting past vastly improved Johnny Johnson 6-3, 6-1 Wednesday night. An under the weather Loyola earlier advanced with an easy 6-2, 6-1 win over Nicolas Son Tuesday night.

Loyola will figure in one more championship game when he and partner Cleofe Santos go up against Lito Cabrera and Young Son in the finals of the mixed doubles open.

Loyola and Santos barged into the championship round with a 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 victory over Keith Gabaldon and Kazumi Imai, while Son and Cabrera beat Jack McClure and Sally Wong 7-5, 6-2.

Manny Jaraplasan and Merle Hudkins, meanwhile, will battle the father-and-daughter pair of Joe Sr. and Audrey Motto after they took out Ricky Castro and Mia Jones 6-2, 6-3.

Fleet-footed Buddy Garote, meanwhile, advanced to the championship round of the men’s 4.5 with a 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 triumph over Richard Asuncion. He will await the semifinal duel between Nanding Cajigan and Johnson. Johnson advanced to the Final Four after vanquishing Edwin Maratas 6-1, 7-5 Tuesday.

The finals of the men’s 4.0 was finally decided Wednesday night after being delayed the night before because of bad weather.

After being extended to a rubber set, Jorge Olanda and Abet Encarnacion prayed for rain that eventually came, snapping their opponents’ momentum and allowing them to recharge for the next day.

Olanda outplayed Michael Roberts in the first set taking it in a tiebreak—overcoming a magical blind winner by his opponent at 5-3—but saw his energy reserves tapped out in the second.

Fortunately for him, rain showers halted the match as the third set was just about to begin.

The Telesource engineer then made the most of his second chance, as he returned to form Wednesday to clinch the finals ticket with a 7-6 (7-2), 2-6, 6-4 victory over Robert, a Public School System teacher who is playing in his second to the last tournament before relocating with his family to Arizona.

Encarnacion, for his part, benefited from the same reprieve as Olanda, outplaying the crafty Toshi Beltau in the third set after surrendering the second to win in a score of 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Mayuko Arriola encountered some tough opposition from Audrey Motto before stopping the 13-year-old and her family’s phenomenal run in the tourney with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 victory.

She will face Lucita Pasana for all the marbles, after the former Pacific Islands Club clubmate battled through cramps in beating teenager Vivian Lee.

One teenager that made it to the championship round was Dinalette Jones, who turned back Karen Ramsey 7-5, 6-2 in the women’s 3.0 semifinals.