Calma, Tortal score big in PPS Butuan

MANILA, Philippines – Top seed Mary Aubrey Calma of Cagayan de Oro lived up to her billing and pocketed two titles while Surigao’s Rupert Tortal posted a win and a runner-up finish in the Butuan City leg of the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala regional tennis circuit at the Butuan Capitol Tennis Club recently.

Calma, 15, subdued No. 2 Jazzelle Madis, 6-4, 6-2, to cop the girls’ 16-U crown then the Corpus Christi High School mainstay wore down Madis in the 18-U finals and scored a 1-0 (ret.) win to lead the winners in the kickoff leg of the PPS-PEPP summer tour and 12th stage overall of the country’s premier age-grouper sponsored by Palawan Pawnshop and presented by Slazenger.

Tortal also stamped his class and clobbered unseeded Marco Andre, 6-2, 6-4, to claim the boys’ 12-U title but the 11-year-old rising star from Surigao Pilot School fell short against second seed Joris Pantujan from Padada, Davao del Sur, who took the 14-U diadem, 6-3, 7-5.

Sultan Kudarat’s April Bentillo matched Calma’s twin-title romp as she trounced Tenielle Madis, 6-3, 6-2, for the 12-U crown and overpowered Angela Novis, 6-3, 6-1, for the 14-U title in the Group 2 event sanctioned by the Philippine Tennis Association and backed by Asiatraders Corp., exclusive distributor of Slazenger, the official ball.