Epic feats, breakthroughs

Second of two-part series  

Alex hits apex

MANILA, Philippines— In a breezy September, teen sensation Alex Eala dazzled and waltzed her way to the top of the US Open junior championships, and put the Philippines on the world tennis map.

The 17-year-old ace netted a piece of “HERSTORY” with a masterful 6-2, 6-4 win over then world No. 3 and now top-ranked Lucie Havlickova of the Czech Republic to become the first Filipina to win any junior singles Grand Slam.

It’s the first singles Grand Slam in her budding career after bagging two doubles titles in the 2020 Australian Open with Indonesian pal Priska Madelyn Nugroho and the 2021 French Open with Russian Oksana Selekhmeteva.

And Eala did it in emphatic fashion, completing a perfect run without a single set yielded through six rounds of the elite 64-strong US Open major draw.

It’s a singles breakthrough for Eala after a previous-best Final Four finish in 2020 in Roland Garros and earlier misses in the US Open (quarterfinals), Wimbledon (second round) and French Open (first round).

In 2022, Eala just would not be denied curiously in the lone junior tournament she played in the year.

A former world junior No. 2 in the International Tennis Federation (ITF), Eala opted to earn more stripes in the Women’s Tennis Association where she also made big leaps to slowly but surely scale the world rankings.

In April, Eala captured her second pro title in the W25 Chiang Rai in Thailand after her maiden crown in the W15 Manacor in Spain last year.

Eala also held her own in tougher pro tourneys highlighted by her first Final Four finish in a stacked $80,000 joust in W80 Poitiers in France following the W60 Hamburg in Germany (Round of 16), W80 Rancho Sante Fe (quarterfinals), W60 Templeton in California (Round of 16) and the powerhouse W100 Shrewsbury in Great Britain (qualifying finals).

That series of commendable campaigns catapulted Eala closer to the elite of the elites, now with a career-best placing at No. 214 in the WTA to end a stellar year.

Eala also debuted in the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam, coming away with three bronze medals.

Beermen back as champs

San Miguel Beer reclaimed its lost kingdom in the PBA with a new-look cast.

SMB 2.0, now composed of June Mar Fajardo, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Ross, CJ Perez, Vic Manuel, Jericho Cruz and Simon Enciso, roared its way back to the Philippine Cup throne after a three-year slump.

The retooled gang of coach Leo Austria hit the jackpot in just the third tournament since dismantling the “Death Five” of old and letting go of champion players Arwind Santos and Alex Cabagnot to infuse fresher legs.

SMB 2.0 won nine of its 11 elims assignments to take the top seeding and twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals. After making short work of No. 8 Blackwater, 123-93, the Beermen outlasted semis rival Meralco in seven games then completed the climb back to the top with a similar 4-3 verdict over TNT in the finale.

Fajardo, at full-strength after sustaining a shin injury in 2020, romped off with the Best Player of the Conference and Finals MVP plums.

SMB lined itself up for a possible back-to-back in the Commissioner’s Cup, which the league revived after a three-year absence. But the Beermen ran into a juggernaut from Hong Kong – the Bay Area Dragons — and crashed out in the best-of-five semis, 3-1.

The Dragons are now in position to win it all just like fellow foreign guest team Nicholas Stoodley in the 1980 Invitational.

Standing in their way, however, are the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings, who view themselves as “protectors” of the homeland against a foreign power.

The Gin Kings, who earlier reigned supreme in the previous season’s Governors’ Cup that spilled over to April 2022, won the exciting best-of-seven finals opener in front of over 18,000 Christmas Day fans, 96-81.

The Dragons, though, quickly struck back on Niños Inocentes Feast Day, 99-82, to tie things up and set up an even more explosive showdown at the resumption of the series on Jan. 4.

Collegiate hoops in full swing

History. Redemption. Controversy. Dynasty.

The Philippine collegiate hoops had it all in a much-awaited return, without shortage of milestones for distinguished schools led by Letran, University of the Philippines, Ateneo and National U.

As the Knights capped a three-peat in the NCAA, the Fighting Maroons and the Blue Eagles went back-and-forth for UAAP supremacy while the Lady Bulldogs clinched their seventh straight title in UAAP women’s hoops – all fueled by hunger and thirst from a long hiatus due to the pandemic.

Aside from completing a hat trick against three different finals opponents, the Knights, under the tutelage of coach Bonnie Tan, made history by winning two season crowns in a year.

After sweeping Season 97, the Knights met a strong resistance from St. Benilde but still prevailed, winning Season 98 in a deciding Game 3.

In the UAAP, Katipunan rivals UP and Ateneo took turns in hoisting the crown after figuring in two straight finals duels.

The Fighting Maroons, with debuting collegiate coach Goldwin Monteverde at the helm, drew first blood behind JD Cagulangan’s game-winner in Season 84 to win their first title in 36 years.

Then UP had a chance to keep mastery of its rival in arranging a finals rematch with Ateneo in Season 85.

The Tab Baldwin-mentored Blue Eagles exacted vengeance though, regaining the throne for their fourth in the last five seasons and 12th overall.

Like any other year though, there were some scratches as John Amores of Jose Rizal U ran amok and punched multiple players in an NCAA game against St. Benilde, making the headlines for the wrong reason leading to indefinite league suspension and expulsion from the JRU basketball team.

But the brightest of the 2022 lights belonged to coach Aris Dimaunahan and the NU Lady Bulldogs, who despite a bump on the road still clinched a record-tying seventh straight title in the UAAP women’s basketball.

Behind Finals MVP Kristine Cayabyab with veterans Mikka Cacho and Camille Clarin, NU vented its ire on La Salle with a sweep in the Season 85 finals to join the great University of the East squad of coach Baby Dalupan and Robert Jaworski in the 60s-70s as the only seven-peat collegiate basketball champs.

The Lady Bulldogs actually saw the end of their 108-game win streak that stood tall for almost a decade after an elims loss to La Salle but still claimed the ultimate goal to extend women’s hoops dynasty.

Tsukii strikes gold

After a heartbreaking start to the year, Fil-Japanese karateka Junna Tsukii hit the big one as she delivered the country’s lone medal in the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama in July — a gold.

Relentless in her pursuit of glory, the 30-year-old Tsukii mustered the last of her remaining strength to pull the rug from under an old, familiar conqueror — the fearsome World No. 2 Yorgelis Salazar of Venezuela — for the ultimate prize.

That victory avenged Tsukii’s defeat at the hands of the powerful and more experienced Venezuelan champion in the pool stage.

She barely made the next stage, but then found a good rhythm, besting Japanese Miho Miyahara, 4-3, in the semis that turned out as a prelude to one of her most memorable performances in slaying Salazar, 2-0, in the final to pocket that glittering gold in the under-50 kg kumite event.

It was the country’s second mint in the World Games after world pool champion Carlo Biado snared one in Poland in 2017.

Somehow, it eased the heartbreak of her failed golden bid in last May’s Hanoi Southeast Asian Games and her missed attempt at an Olympic berth in Tokyo the year before.

More importantly, it rekindled the fire for Tsukii to strive for more.

Philippines volley keeps fire alive

From the sands to the taraflex here and abroad, volleybelles made marks in a busy year for Philippine volleyball.

The Philippine beach volleyball team, Creamline, Petro Gazz, National U, St. Benilde, California Precision Sports – Antipolo and Cignal HD spiked their way to sweet championships in different leagues as the local volleyball swung full blast after a long inactivity due to the pandemic.

As local teams duked it out for supremacy in their respective leagues, the Nationals marched on and brought home glory courtesy of the elite beach volleyball squad.

Seasoned spikers Sisi Rondina and Jovelyn Gonzaga struck gold in the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour in Subic that featured international powerhouses like Japan.

The veteran pair bested compatriots Jen Eslapor and Dij Rodriguez, 22-24, 21-12, 15-12, in an all-Filipino finale for the country’s first 1-2 finish in any major beach volleyball tilt.

It was a fitting follow-up to the beach spikers’ bronze-medal finish in the Southeast Asian Games.

The men’s beach volleyball team of Jude Garcia, Jaron Requinton, Krung Arbasto and Ranran Abdilla also captured the bronze medal, making it up for the podium miss of both the men’s and women’s indoor volleyball teams.

The Nationals also brought home two gold, one silver and two bronze medals from the Australia Beach Volleyball Tour Championships.

The Creamline Cool Smashers, for their part, etched history by making it to the Top 6 of the Asian Women’s Volleyball Cup for the country’s best finish in the continental indoor volleyball meet.

That was on top of Creamline’s championship in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) Open Conference behind Conference MVP Tots Carlos and Finals MVP Alyssa Valdez.

Petro Gazz took its turn in the PVL Reinforced Conference with import Lindsey Vander Weide capturing the Finals MVP honor. Chery Tiggo’s Mylene Paat was named the Conference MVP.

Ateneo, behind MVP Faith Nisperos, also made noise by winning the V-League Collegiate Challenge with California Precision Sports – Antipolo and Cignal HD ruling the women’s and men’s divisions of the PNVF Champions League, respectively.

But there were no teams that displayed more dominance than St. Benilde in the NCAA and NU in the UAAP.

The Jerry Yee-mentored Lady Blazers and the Karl Dimaculangan-coached Lady Bulldogs swept hapless rivals with the former going on an 11-0 run in NCAA Season 97 while the latter completing a 16-0 juggernaut in UAAP Season 84.

And as if the powerhouse Lady Bulldogs haven’t achieved enough, they would later on clinch another tournament sweep in the inaugural Shakey’s Super League Collegiate Pre-Season Championship.

Other golden moments:

Rubilen Amit, Carlo Biado and Johann Chua delivered the country’s maiden World 10-ball Team Championship trophy after dominating Great Britain’s Kelly Fisher, Jayson Shaw and Darren Appleton in the finale, 3-0, in the prestigious event held in Austria.

Sandi Abahan, an Igorota elite trail runner, and Andrico Mahilum, an Armyman and vertical racer, emerged from the Himalayas as winners of the Altitude OCR (Obstacle Course Racing) World Championships Mount Everest.

Meggie Ochoa (48kgs) and Kimberly Anne Custodio (-45kgs) produced golden feats in the women’s adult circuit of the 2022 JJIF World Jiu-Jitsu Championships in Abu Dhabi while five-year-old Aliea Aguilar struck gold in the Kids 16 kg competition.

Unbeaten boxer Dave Apolinario captured the IBO flyweight belt with a first-round knockout of Gideon Buthelezi in East London, South Africa to provide breath of fresh air following the fall of world champs Nonito Donaire Jr., Mark Magsayo and John Riel Casimero.

Tokyo Olympics boxing silver medalist Carlo Paalam ruled the -54-kg class in the ASBC Asian Elite Men’s and Women’s Championships in Amman, Jordan after stunning fancied Kazakh Makhmud Sabyrkhan in the gold-medal bout via split decision.