Lim loses steam, falls to HK netter

MANILA, Philippines – AJ Lim is being groomed as the next big thing in Philippine tennis. He will need a little more time though to get there.

Still groping for form with his newfound service and hitting stroke after changing coaches only months back, Lim succumbed to mounting pressure as he was blown away by lucky loser Hong Kit Jack Wong of Hong Kong, 6-3, 6-2, that completed a Phl shutout in the boys' division of the 25th Mitsubishi International Junior Championship at the Rizal Tennis Center yesterday.

Lim, who left Manny Tecson's training team to transfer to Florida-based L'Academie de Tennis (LAT) last January, appeared as good as advertised at the start of the match as zoomed to a blistering start by displaying his brand new booming serves, volleys and backhands to take the first three games.

But Lim, ranked 175th in the ITF Junior rankings and the youngest participant in this weeklong event at 14 years old, lost steam as Wong found all the answers to the former's shots and took the six games and the first set while equally dominating the second by relying heavily on his solid baseline game.

After the match, Lim complained of hurting his right arm and quickly left.

"I felt something in my arm, some pain," said Lim, who was watched by both his current coach American Ollie Townsend of LAT and former Filipino coach Manny Tecson.

It was probably pressure that hastened Lim's downfall knowing he had to carry the responsibility for a country seeking its next biggest hero in Phl tennis.

What hurts more was the same player that has beaten him was the same person that countryman Vince Salas downed, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 in Monday's qualifier.

Lim was the last Filipino bet to fall after Salas, Eric Olivarez, Jr., Jerome Romualdez, Andrew Joshua Cano, Joachim Samson, Marcen Angelo Gonzalez, Dave Sebastian Mosqueda and John Bryan Decasa all went by the wayside with crushing defeats.

Salas fell to Joshua Liu, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (6), Olivarez lost to Jack Van Slyke of Canada, 6-4, 6-4, Romualdez was shown the door by Andrew Hei Yin of Hong Kong, 6-2, 6-1, Cano bowed to William Matheson of New Zealand, 6-2, 6-2, Samson was eliminated by Brian Tran of Australia, 6-3, 6-0;

Gonzalez was leading by a set and trailing in the second before he retired and lost to Lewis Roskilly of Great Britain, 4-6, 4-3, Mosqueda was booted out by Sameer Kumar of the US, 6-2, 6-0, and Decasa walloped by Kuan Yi Lee of Taipei, 6-1, 6-0.

The country's bets in the girls' division were equally overwhelmed as Roxanne May Resma, Jana Marie Pages and Maria Angela Sunga all losing their matches to Japan's Yukina Saigo, 6-1, 6-1, Australia's Chloe Hule, 6-1, 6-4, and Thailand's Bunyawi Thamchaiwat, 6-1, 6-2, respectively.

Chrislyn Colleen Sioson survived two tiebreakers as she downed Fil-Am Samantha Erika Gonzalo, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (6), to emerge the lone Filipino standing.

It was the lone bright spot to what turned out a gloomy day for the local bets after the rest of the Phl entry lost one after the other.

Sioson though will try to catch a bigger fish as she faces second seed Greetje Minnen of Belgium, which drew an opening round bye, in Wednesday's second round.