Mendoza succumbs to Viet, takes silver

NANJING – The Philippines fell short of a third gold medal in the Asian Youth Games when Jurence Mendoza lost to a lower-ranked Vietnamese in the boys’ tennis final yesterday.

Mendoza, the second seed here and No. 89 in the world youth rankings, came into the final match against Hoang Nam Ly as the solid favorite.

The 17-year-old Filipino said he knew the Vietnamese, his playing partner here the past week. But it turned out he didn’t know him well enough.

The Vietnamese, fourth seed and No. 142 in the world, played a very patient game while Mendoza struggled with his serve and committed numerous unforced errors.

Not even the cheers from a small Filipino delegation which braved the intense afternoon heat to watch Mendoza in the finals at the Tennis Academy of China could help.

After nearly three hours, the Vietnamese won the gold, 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 7-5.

The end came when Mendoza double-faulted on his serve. After losing the match he badly wanted to win, he made the sign of the cross and approached his opponent and friend at the net.

They shook hands and smiled at each other.

Mendoza faced the Pinoy crowd and waved his right hand. Then he sat under the shade and covered his head with a towel. His coach, Martin Misa, tried to console him.

Filipino chef-de-mission Tac Padilla also approached Mendoza and gave him a tap on the shoulder.

“We all saw how Jurence fought in this match. He has nothing to be ashamed of. We are proud of Jurence,” added the chef-de-mission.

Mendoza capped the Philippine campaign in this 45-nation event reserved for athletes aged 14 to 17 years. He wanted the gold but settled for the silver.

“We cannot ask anything more from our youth athletes,” said Padilla of the 54-strong delegation supported by the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee.

The Filipinos will come home with two gold and three silver medals, a marked improvement from a one-silver, one-bronze effort in the inaugural AYG in Singapore in 2009.

Golf delivered a gold courtesy of Mia Legaspi and a silver courtesy of Princess Superal while taekwondo won the gold through Pauline Louise Lopez and a silver through Francis Aaron Agojo.

Mendoza trailed 3-5 in the opening set and spent a lot of energy trying to catch his opponent. The first set alone lasted a little over an hour.

In the second set, Mendoza blew two chances to break Ly’s serve but squandered a 40-15 lead on both occasion. Ly took the opportunity to even the match.

And in the third and deciding set, Mendoza kept fighting and forced a 5-5 deadlock. But that proved to be his last stand.

The main bulk of the Filipino delegation has left for home while the last batch, mostly made up of team officials, will arrive in Manila midnight of Sunday.

The other night, Kyla Richardson finished fifth in the girls’ 200m race with a time of 23.82 seconds while the 3-on-3 basketball team of Isaac Go, Patrick Ramirez and Andrei Caracut lost to Indonesia, 19-11, and placed eighth overall.

Swimmer Jethro Chua was still scheduled to compete in the finals of 100m freestyle last night. He qualified with a time of 53.55 seconds.

Rafael Sta. Maria did not make it to the finals after finishing fifth in his heat with his time of 53.88. Catherine Bondad failed to reach the finals of the 100m free with her time of 101.09.