Iglupas seeks Phinma International repeat

MANILA, Philippines - Khim Iglupas sets out for the PSC-Phinma International Juniors Tennis Championships next week, upbeat of her chances to score a repeat in Week 1 of the two-stage Grade 4 ITF event at the Manila Polo Club in Makati.

Iglupas knocked off five foreign rivals, including Indonesian Rifanty Kahfiani, 6-2, 6-4, in the finals, to claim the singles crown in the first of two legs of the annual event featuring some of the world’s top juniors last year.

She also bagged the doubles plum with Kahfiani but the Philippine Tennis Academy standout fell short of her sweep bid in Week 2, bowing to Japanese Ayumi Miyamoto in the semis of the event backed by major sponsors Phinma Group of Companies and the Philippine Sports Commission.

But the Filipina ace is all primed up for the event set Nov. 17-22 although she will be up against a souped-up roster that includes Miyamoto and fellow Japanese Naho Sato, Satoko Sueno, Anri Nagata and Himari Sato.

Others in the 32-player main draw are Taiwan’s Ho Chao Hsia and Ting Chieh Wei, the Netherlands’ Lian Tran and Demi Tran, Koreans Hyeran Yun and Yuseung Suh, Indonesian Joleta Budiman and Sara Tsukamoto of the US.

Meanwhile, 24 players will slug it out for the last 10 spots in the main draw in the two-day qualifying set Nov. 15-16, including local hopefuls Monica Cruz, Frances Santiago, Shaira Rivera and Rafella Villanueva.

Meanwhile, John Bryan Otico is the lone Filipino in the boys’ main draw of the week-long event sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation and backed by Mariposa Foundation and Dunlop Sport, also the tournament’s distributor of official balls.

But 13 other local bets are vying in the qualifiers, including Jerome Romualdez, Dave Mosqueda, Michael Eala, Cenon Gonzales Jr., Paulo So, Manuel Balce III, Arthur Pantino, Marco Ayala, Jaime Lorenzo Almario, Jacob Martin, Joaquin de Venecia, Justin Suarez and Francis Atienza.

The PSC-Phinma IJTC Week 2, also sanctioned by the Philippine Tennis Association with Wannait Srirasa of Thailand as ITF supervisor and Loida Mallare as tournament director, will be held Nov. 24-29.