Pinoy netters seal 1-2 finish in doubles

MANILA, Philippines — After heartbreaks and heartaches in various fronts in the early days of SEAG netfest, Team Phl finally hit an ace in the form of a sure gold-silver finish in men’s doubles.

The pair of Ruben Gonzales Jr. and Treat Huey and the duo of Jeson Patrombom and Francis Alcantara secured the sure one-two feat for the home team on their semifinal victories over Vietnamese rivals at the Rizal Memorial tennis center yesterday.

Gonzales and Huey, the tournament’s top seed, demolished Hoang Nam Ly and Quoc Khanh Le, 6-1 6-3, while Patrombon and Alcantara scored a 6-3 6-1 thrashing of Nguyen Daniel Cao and Van Phoung Nguyen to set up an all-Filipino finale.

“I’m very happy we won today. First time namin mag-partner and first time rin namin sa finals,” said Patrombon. “Nandyan lahat ng tao na naka-support sa amin, malaking bagay yun.”

“That was our goal, to get the gold and silver for the Philippines,” said Alcantara. “We’re already there. We’re just gonna have fun and pretend it’s gonna be a practice match kasi we’re playing against our kuyas so bahala na.”