Noguit, Zoleta advance in Korea international soft tennis

GWANG-JU, KOREA – Sammy Noguit and Bien Zoleta advanced to the knockout stages in their respective singles categories of the 2010 NongHyup Gwang-ju International Soft Tennis Championship here Saturday at the Metropolitan indoor hardcourts.

Noguit turned back Uayporn S. of Thailand, 3-1, and top Gwangju junior Lee Kwangsam, 3-1, to top Group-F; while Mikoff Manduriao blanked both Salamon Jay of Czech Republic and Soumpholphakdy of Laos.

 In Group-C, Zoleta bowed to Thai lass Kerdsomboon, 1-3, but whitewashed Sugar Ganchimeg of Mongolia and Yusopzhanova Shabnam of Tajikistan to catch the last ticket to the money round.

Manduriao also qualified as No. 1 in Group-C following victories over Sumpholpakdy Vanassao of Laos, 3-0, and Salamon Jiri of Czeck Republic, 3-1, during the round-robin preliminaries.

 In the doubles event, Joseph and Jhomar Arcilla made the cut together with the Deena Cruz-Cheryl Macasera pair and the Josephine Paguyo-Divine Escala tandem.

Manduriao and Jopy Mamawal lost 2 tiebreakers – 3-4 (5-7) to Damdin Altankuyag and Enkjin Bolortuya and 3-4 (5-7) to the Poland team of Sarnecki Tomasz and Drewnowski Tomasz.

The Korea competition is part of the RP soft tennis teams’ preparation for the Guangzhou Asian Games and supported by Dr Antonio Tamayo, the PSC and POC director Col. Jeff Tamayo.