Netters advance; chessers drop to 5th

GUANZHOU – Davis Cup veterans Cecil Mamiit and Conrad Treat Huey swept past Hiroki Kondo and Go Soeda of Japan, 4-6, 7-6 (0), 1-0 (6), and brought their partnership to the quarterfinal round of the doubles event of the Asian Games competition at the Aot Tennis Center yesterday.

The Filipino duo broke the Japanese pair in the 11th game for a 6-5 lead and finished the match with a winner to take the second set and advance to the quarters against Cambodia’s Yui Chu-Huan and Lee Hsin-Han.

In singles play, Mamiit took out MC Sayer of Hong Kong, 7-5, 7-5, and fights Soeda anew in the quarterfinal round in the upper half of the draw.

In the lower half, Huey downed K Adihari of Nepal, 6-0, 6-1 and moved to the quarterfinal round against T. Ito of Japan.

Meanwhile, the Philippines took a stinging 1-3 loss to fancied China and dropped to joint fifth in team competitions at the Guangzhou Chess Institute yesterday.

GM Wesley So, back in the roster after taking a rest in Phl’s 3-1 victory over Iraq in the first round, held super GM Wang Yue to a draw, the same result forged by GM Joey Antonio against GM Bu Xiangzhi.

But GMs John Paul Gomez and Darwin Laylo fell to GM Zhou Jianchao and GM Ni Hua, respectively, as the Filipinos slid to fifth with six others with two points based on a scoring system that gives two points for a win, one point for a draw and zero for a loss.

China also whipped Bangladesh, 2.5-1.5, in the first round to share the lead with India, which trounced Kyrgyzstan, 3.5.0.5, and Uzbekistan, 4-0; third seed Kazakhstan, which humbled Yemen, 3-1, and Qatar, 2.5-1.5; and fourth seed Vietnam, which trounced Jordan, 3.5-0.5, and Iran, 3.5-0.5.