Arevalo shrugs off pain, overcomes Pang

Top-seeded Czarina Mae Arevalo yesterday needed a lot of luck to turn back unseeded Michelle Pang, 6-1, 1-6, 7-6 (3), and advance into the women’s singles final of the 23rd PCA Open at the Philippine Columbian Association shell-clay courts.

Arevalo, of Ateneo, continued to play hurt and stared defeat in the eyes as Pang, of Colegio de San Agustin, wielded the upset axe, even enjoying match point as she led, 6-5, in the deciding set.

But the 20-year-old Arevalo, who looked spent and ready to go the whole time, got all the breaks she needed to force the tiebreak and win the two-hour match that was played before a lean crowd.

"I played bad. I couldn’t hit my shots because of my injury. I felt super lucky to win this one," said Arevalo.

The country’s top female player who twisted her right ankle while competing in the recent SEA Games will once again need all the luck she could get when she faces fourth seed Bambi Zoleta in today’s finals at 11 a.m.

Zoleta is a precocious 13-year-old high school student of Mary Hills College in Lucena City. She is competing in her first PCA Open but has easily made heads turn with her basic moves.

Zoleta defeated unseeded Arra Micayabas in the other semis, 6-0, 6-2, to set up her first-ever meeting with Arevalo. Micayabas defeated another Zoleta, 17-year-old Bien, in the second round.

The women’s champion in the event presented by Basilan Gov. Muslim "Wahab" Akbar will receive P30,000. The men’s champion will receive the bigger purse of P80,000.

Korean Chung Hee Seok will face RP No. 1 PJ Tierro and the local crowd when the men’s final is played shortly after lunch. Tierro was part of the RP team that won the gold medal in the SEA Games.