Dalisay survives Taiwanese

MANILA, Philippines – Diego Dalisay, fresh from his romp in the qualifiers, toughened up in the second set to boot out Taiwanese Tsai Chang Lin, 6-2, 7-5, yesterday and move into the second round of the Phinma-PSC International Juniors Tennis Championships Week 2 at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center yesterday.

Dalisay, who trampled a couple of rivals to clinch one of the four berths in the two-day elims Monday, dominated Chang in the opening set but needed to fend off the Taiwanese challenge in the next and clinch the win and a spot in the next phase of the Grade 4 ITF 18-under category event sponsored by the Phinma Group of Companies and the Philippine Sports Commission.

But three other Filipino bets fell by the wayside with Stephan Lhuillier and Justin Suarez bowing to Indonesian Giorgio Soemarno and Korean Keonho Shin, respectively, via the same scorelines, 4-6. 1-6; and Jerome Romualdez yielding to Taiwan’s Chen Ying Ze, 1-6, 3-6.

Others who advanced in the last of the two-week top-ranking event, backed by Mariposa Foundation, Technifibre and Century Park Hotel, were Japanese Ryo Watanabe, Kazuki Shimizu and Kai Kawano and Malaysian Christian Chin.