Arcilla, Arevalo reign

Johnny Arcilla overcame a sputtering start and leaned on his power game to demolish top seed Patrick John Tierro, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, and capture the men’s crown in the Philippine Columbian Association Tennis Championship at the PCA’s indoor shell courts yesterday.

Third seed Czarina Mae Arevalo also cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over fifth pick Michelle Pang to bag the ladies plum on his return to the tournament presented by Hewlett Packard.

Arcilla made four double faults in the first set and trailed at 2-4. But the 26-year-old defending champion rediscovered his form, played a steady game with superb baseline shots and romped away with easy wins in the last two sets.

“At first, I didn’t expect to win since PJ has been playing solid in the early rounds. But I put emphasis on my power shots and stayed focused,” said Arcilla, who thus annexed his third PCA crown worth P80,000.

Arcilla, winner of the 2001 and 2006 editions of the event, won five break points against the hard-hitting Tierro and completed the victory in two hours and five minutes.

Tierro, 22, settled for P40,000 runner-up purse.

“I made some mistakes especially in the first set. But he really played well. He had some great shots and I am happy for him,” said Tierro, who had 28 unforced errors, including 13 in the first set.

After a year of absence due to competition abroad, Arevalo marked her amazing comeback with a straight-set demolition of Pang in one hour and 10 minutes. 

The Bangkok-based Arevalo bagged the P30,000 purse.

“She improved a lot so I told myself that I should give my best shot from the start,” said Arevalo, winner of the 2002, 2003 and 2005 stagings of the event.

In men’s doubles, top seeds Arcilla and Tierro whipped No. 8 Ronald Joven and Rocky Paglalunan, 6-3, 6-3, while Arevalo and Fil-Am Denise Dy rallied past siblings Bambi and Bien Zoleta, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, to secure the women’s doubles plum.