MANILA, Philippines - John David Velez and April Minette Bentillo took the 14-and-under crowns in varying fashions as they shared center stage with Vince Tugade and Carlyn Guarde in the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala Isulan regional age group tennis tournament in Sultan Kudarat last Monday.
Velez flashed top form to crush John Litang, 6-1, 6-0, in the finals, completing a dominating campaign that saw the rising Davao ace drop just four games on his way to the championship in the Group 2 tournament sponsored by Palawan Pawnshop headed by president/CEO Bobby Castro and presented by Slazenger.
Bentillo also looked headed to matching Velez’s romp in the girls’ side but after yielding six games from the first round to the semis, the local ace struggled against Alexa Milliam and needed to come up with clutch hits to hack out a 3-6, 7-6(5), 10-8 decision.