John David Velez, Tenielle Madis claim ‘double’ in PPS Tagum

MANILA, Philippines — John David Velez and Tenielle Madis lived up to the hype and racked up two titles each as they shared the MVP honors in the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala Tagum leg age-group tennis circuit at the Tagum City Tennis Club in Davao del Norte yesterday.

Velez, 14, dropped just three games to dominate his age group, taking the singles crown with a 6-1, 6-0 romp over Karl Palo then the Davao City ace ran away with the 16-and-under plum via the same scoreline over Andrei Padao.

Madis, from Mlang, also stamped her class in the girls’ 12- and 14-U sides, beating Jillian Manangking twice in the finals, 6-1, 6-0, and 6-2, 6-0, respectively, in the Group 2 tournament sponsored by Palawan Pawnshop and presented by Slazenger with Dunlop as the official ball.

In other results, Jazzell Madis, also from Cotabato, overpowered Lyza Colina, 6-1, 6-0, for the girls’ 18-U title with unranked Meynard Badal from Panabo bagging the boys’ premier title with a 7-6(7), 6-3 win over No. 4 Lawrence Colina.

Lyza Colina rebounded in the 16-U class, holding off Daniela Licong, 6-4, 6-2, in the finals; while Polomolok’s Al Anazi shocked top seed Reyman Saldivar in a thrilling semis duel, 6-3, 3-6, 14-12, then blasted Nathaniel Angus, 6-1, 6-3, in the finals. Kidapawan’s Jose Palo also upended top seed Shaun Globasa, 4-0, 5-3, to snare the 10-unisex plum in the five-day tournament sanctioned by the Unified Tennis Philippines, made up of PPS-PEPP, Cebuana Lhuillier, Wilson, Toby’s, Dunlop, Slazenger and B-Meg.

“Velez and Madis should serve as inspiration to those aspiring to make it big in the sport someday. Through hard work and dedication – and their continued participation in the circuit – these two youngsters have been dominating not only their age divisions but also the higher categories,” said Palawan Pawnshop president/CEO Bobby Castro.