FOURTH ranked Joshua Kinaadman kept his nerves in check as he sustained a superb baseline game to bundle out top seed Johnny Arcilla 6-4, 6-4 and barge into the finals of the Gov. Edwin Jubahib Cup National Tennis Championships at the DavNor Tourism and Sports Complex in Davao del Norte yesterday.
No. 3 Eric Olivarez also advanced in tougher fashion later in the day, needing to rebound from a crushing second set defeat to upend second seed Vicente Anasta 6-2, 1-6, 10-3 in their semis duel.
They dispute the crown and the top purse of P40,000 at 8 a.m. today, Monday.
Kinaadman earlier ousted Bruce Hurtado, 4-1, 4-0, then bested Christian Lopez, 7-6(8), 6-0 before trouncing Fritz Verdad, 6-2, 6-0, to arrange a semis clash with Arcilla, while Olivarez eased out Carlos Santiago, 4-0, 5-3, toppled Jelic Amazona, 6-4, 6-2, then turned back Ronard Joven, 3-6, 6-0, 10-7, to set up Final Four duel with Anasta.
In the semis, Kinaadman pulled through in a pressure-packed tiebreaker to break Arcilla in the 10th game of the opening set then matched that feat in the next, capping the big reversal with another break via shutout to earn a crack at the crown in the event put up by Gov. Jubahib as part of his commitment to boost the province’s sports program.
