Unranked Pinoys gain; Patrombon falls

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino wild card entries Kim Ivor Saraza and Marian Jade Capadocia pulled off stunning victories yesterday at the start of the 21st Mitsubishi Lancer International Junior Tennis Championships at the Rizal Tennis Center.

Capadocia bucked the odds versus world No. 387 Manisha Foster of Great Britain, hacking out a 6-4, 6-1 win while Saraza brought down world No. 117 Nuttanon Kadchapan of Thailand, 6-3, 6-3, to join Francis Casey Alcantara and Filipino-American sensation Raymond Sarmiento in the next round.

Late in the afternoon, Jeson Patrombon, one of the country’s brightest hopes, and Patricia Joy Orteza lost to Australia’s James Duckworth and Korean Su Jeong Jang via identical 1-6, 0-6 scores.

Alcantara and Sarmiento drew first round byes with their high rankings. The former is seeded fourth being the world No. 38 while the latter is seeded second being the world No. 27.

Sarmiento is tipped to perform well after a quarterfinal finish in last year’s US Junior Open and a victory in a grass court tournament in the United States.

“This is my first time playing here so I’m really excited,” said Sarmiento, whose parents hail from Bohol and Quezon City but are now based in Fontana, California.

Alcantara, the pride of Cagayan de Oro, will face the winner between Vadik Munshaw of India and wild card Hesham Deen of Malaysia while Sarmiento will square off with either Barrett Franks of New Zealand or Na Jung Woong of Korea.

Capadocia moved to the next round against 12th pick Ekaterina Nkitina of Russia while Saraza advanced to face top seed Mate Zsiga of Hungary.

Ana Clarice Patrimonio, Marianne de Guzman, Jasmine Ho, Shannin Olivarez, Tamitha Nguyen, Katrina Orteza, Marinel Rudas, Jacob Lagman and Akio Sy moved out of contention, beaten by fancied foreign rivals.

Patrimonio, daughter of former PBA star Alvin Patrimonio who made it straight to the main draw, lost to Italy’s Alessia Camplone, 2-6, 2-6; De Guzman bowed to Russian Ksenia Gospodinova, 2-6, 3-6, and Ho succumbed to Thai Kanyapat Narattana, 0-6, 4-6.

Olivarez lost to Kyra Shroff of India, 1-6, 2-6, Nguyen to Singaporean Stephanie Tan, 4-6, 5-7, Orteza to Japanese Kanami Tsuji, 1-6, 0-6, and Rudas to Chinese Zhu Lin, 7-5, 3-6, 3-6.

Lagman likewise was shown the door by Australian Andrew Whittington, 0-6, 1-6, and Sy absorbed a 3-6, 0-6 beating at the hands of Swedish Robin Olin.