RP netters face strong teams in early clash

The Philippines remains undaunted despite drawing powerhouse squads in both the men’s and women’s divisions at the start of the team event in the 23rd SEA Games today at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

The RP women’s team faces tough opposition against Indonesia in the semifinals following the draw yesterday while the men’s squad will find its hands full against Thailand in the semifinals with the Thais tipped to beat their Myanmar rivals in the quarterfinal round.

But both RP coaches — men’s mentor Martin Misa and women’s coach Johnny Jose – remain confident of their wards’ chances.

"I’m very confident of the team’s chances.  We got the best athletes, we prepared well, we got a very supportive crowd and we got the homecourt advantage," said Misa, who’s looking forward to his first gold medal as head coach behind Fil-Americans Cecil Mamiit and Frederick Taino, currently 211 and 241 in the ATP rankings.

"If there’s one thing that would foil our title hopes, it could be overconfidence.  We’ll have to do it one step at a time," Misa said adding that the RP team has the tools to duplicate its gold medal feat in the Games in 1991.

Meanwhile, Jose said they would take it one match at a time, going for the bronze medal and hopefully reaching the gold medal contest.

The women’s team will start their bid against Indonesia at the Center Court, 9 a.m. today.  Jose revealed he’ll field in Czarina Mae Arevalo and Ma. Riza Angela Zalameda in the singles event and the tandem of Zalameda and Denise Dy in the doubles event although changes could be made before the match.

The Indonesians are expected to be bannered by two-time Olympian and SEAG gold medallist Wynee Adiati Prakusia, currently ranked No. 233 in the world, and Romana Tedjakusuma, rated No.322.

The other women’s team match pits Myanmar against Vietnam. 

In the men’s division, defending champion Thailand will go up against Myanmar at Court No. 4, Cambodia meets Indonesia in Court No. 3, while Laos takes on Vietnam in Court No. 2.

But if the Indonesian women’s coach Susan Wibowo were to be asked, the RP Women’s Team will have to work harder.

Wibowo sees it a very interesting match to gauge how their players improved so far.  In 1985, the Indons won five medals, except the men and women’s doubles and two years after, they made history sweeping all seven golds in the 1987 Jakarta SEA Games and got three golds in the Vietnam staging two years ago.

"I’ve seen how Maricris Fernandez beat our player (Wynee Adiati Prakusia) in 1999.  Since then we’ve been working on a program to enhance their skills," said Wibowo.

Prakusia is now ranked 238 in the World Tennis Association singles and 140 in the doubles division.  Another Indonesian veteran, Romana Tedjakusuma who won her first gold at age 17 in the 1993 Singapore edition, is 322 in the world.

Comparatively, Zalameda and Arevalo are only 860 and 916 respectively in the world.