Jeson trips Aussie, moves to quarterfinals

MANILA, Philippines - Jeson Patrombon recovered from a second set setback with an imposing performance in the decider as he overwhelmed Australian Andrew Whittington, 6-4, 3-6, 6-0, yesterday to barge into the quarterfinal round of the Australian Open junior boys’ singles event in Melbourne, Australia.

Dragged into a third set duel by the local bet, the No. 8 Patrombon pounded on No. 10 Whittington in the decider, winning 9-of-14 (64 percent) of his first serve while gaining from the home bet’s two unforced errors and two double faults to clinch the match and reach the Last 8.

Whittington had 11 unforced errors in all.

The 17-year-old Patrombon thus moved a win away from matching the best-ever performance by a Filipino in the boys’ singles event of a Grand Slam – a semis appearance by Felix Barrientos in the 1985 Wimbledon juniors.

“All the hard work and extra training we did before the Australian Open is paying off,” said coach Manny Tecson, who worked on improving the technical, physical and mental game of Patrombon following his early exit from the pre-Aussie Open Traralgon meet.

“Jeson is blossoming as a player and he is getting stronger mentally and physically in each match. All our matches here in the Aussie Open were tight and today was no exception when Jeson beat Andrew Whittington and for the first time in a long time a Filipino tennis player is in the quarters of singles in a Grand Slam event,” Tecson said.

But Patrombon will have his hands full in the quarters as he slugs it out with fourth seed George Morgan of Britain, who hacked out a 6-4, 6-7 (4), 10-8 win over No. 14 Mate Delic of Croatia.

Morgan, the boys’ 18-under champ of the 2010 Dunlop Open Orange Bowl Grade A netfest, has competed in the men’s circuit as well, where he’s ranked 930 by the ATP.