Zoleta bows out of Korean soft tennis

GWANG-JU, KOREA – Bien Zoleta closed out her singles campaign in the 2010 NongHyup Gwang-ju International Soft Tennis Championship on a stormy Tuesday morning at the Metropolitan indoor hardcourts.

Zoleta avenged her preliminary stage loss to Thai lass Kerdsomboon with a masterful 3-1 victory at the start of the knockout round to gain a quarterfinal seat where the Filipina bowed to eventual women’s champion Kim Aek-yung of Korea.

The fleet-footed Zoleta foight her Korean foe with tactical short placements to stay within the upset radar at 1- all and deuce on the third game. But Aek-yung, the Asian No. 1 ranked soft netter, unleashed a powerful baseline game and blasted Zoleta away at 3-1.

Sammy Noguit mishit a moonball overhead shot at 5-all in the tiebreak for a heartbreaking 2-3 (5-7) money round setback to Seo Gyo-won, a Seoul soft netter who is a member of the Korea national pool.

Mikoff Manduriao, the Joseph and Jhomar Arcilla partnership together with the Deena Cruz-Cheryl Macasera pair and the Josephine Paguyo-Divine Escala tandem failed to hurdle separate round-of-16 rivals in their respective divisions.

The Korea international tournament is part of the RP soft tennis teams’ preparation for the Guangzhou Asian Games in China under coach Jovy Mamawal and supported by patron Col/Dr Antonio L. Tamayo of UPHSD, PSC and POC director Col. Jeff Tamayo.