{"id":265798,"date":"2017-12-05T06:02:20","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T20:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=265798"},"modified":"2017-12-05T06:02:20","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T20:02:20","slug":"dunlop-couple-survives-tan-lai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/dunlop-couple-survives-tan-lai\/","title":{"rendered":"Dunlop couple survives Tan, Lai"},"content":{"rendered":"
Marivic Dunlop makes a return during her and husband Donn\u2019s semis game against Karen Ramsey and Landon Nadler in the mixed doubles 50-and-above division of the 9th Annual TanHoldings Tennis Classic last Saturday at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan court. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The husband-and-wife tandem of Donn and Marivic Dunlop needed three sets to put away Lydia Tan and David Lai and win the mixed doubles 50-and above championship in the 9th Annual TanHoldings Tennis Classic last Sunday at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan court.<\/p>\n

The No. 2 seed pair prevailed in the opening set, 6-3, but the unranked Tan and Lai refused to give up early and eked out a 6-4 victory to bring the title match to a deciding super-tiebreaker third set. In the extended set, the Dunlops regained their bearings and posted a 10-6 triumph to clinch the division title and avoid the upset axe of Tan and Lai.<\/p>\n

Before facing Marivic and Donn, Tan and David Lai first stunned the No. 1 seed duo of George Lai and Sally Lee in the semis of the upper half of the draw, 6-4, 6-2. Earlier in the opening round, Tan and David Lai also won over Cleofe Santos and Kam Wah Kwan, 6-1, 4-3 (retired).<\/p>\n

At the lower half of the draw, the Dunlops drew a bye in the opening round and then topped Karen Ramsey and Landon Nadler in the semis, 6-1, 6-1, to advance to the finals.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, other doubles winners in the final week of the TanHoldings Tennis Classic were Roy Banados and George Poquiz, Chie Sato and Ken Imaya, and Donn Dunlop and Nicky Nichols.<\/p>\n

Dunlop and Nichols also took three sets to get the men\u2019s doubles 60-and-above championship. They won the first set of their title duel against David Lai and Eddie Wu, 6-4, while the latter pair recovered in the second, 6-3. In the super-tiebreaker third set, Dunlop and Nichols proved to be steadier in the homestretch after posting a 10-5 victory.<\/p>\n

The No. 1 seed Dunlop and Nicholas made it to the finals following a 4-2, 4-1 victory over Nonoy Masinda and Bert Ventura, while Wu and David Lai gained the other finals ticket after sweeping Toshio Matsumura and Gary Ramsey, 6-2, 6-3.<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s 50-and-above doubles, the winners were decided after three sets, too. The No. 2 seed Banados and Poquiz dropped the opening set of their finals duel against No. 1 Nichols and Joe Quitugua, 4-6, but remained in contention after bouncing back in the second in similar scores. Banados and Poquiz went on to complete their upset over their higher-seeded foes after earning a 10-6 victory in the super-tiebreaker third set.<\/p>\n

The eventual champions also took the long route to the finals after slipping past Alexander Martin and Buboy Sergio in the semis, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. Nichols and Quitugua had the same tough win, outclassing Art Lopez and Diony Peralta, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 10-8.<\/p>\n

In the mixed doubles 4.0, Sato and Imaya prevailed in the finals showdown between the Top 2 seeds in the division.<\/p>\n

The No. 2 seed Imaya and Sato swept No. 2 Tan and Sam Lai in the finals, 6-1, 6-3. Sam and Tan earlier eked out a 3-6, 6-3, 10-7 victory over Otobe Mizuyo and Don Castillo in the semis to barge into the title game against Sato and Imaya\u2014a 6-0, 6-1 winner over the Marivic and Nichols in the other Final Four pairing. Nichols and Marivic barged into the semis following a 3-6, 6-4, 12-10 triumph versus Santos and Lacbayo, while Mizuyo and Castillo completed the Final Four cast after eliminating Tisha Ferrer and Noel Biglete, 6-3, 6-3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The husband-and-wife tandem of Donn and Marivic Dunlop needed three sets to put away Lydia…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":265830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[8587,80,19330,14645],"class_list":["post-265798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-david-lai","tag-final-four","tag-marivic-dunlop","tag-sam-lai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}