Pinoy Shuttlers stay in contention

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines rose to the occasion and pulled off a dramatic 3-2 victory over Singapore last night to breathe life to its campaign in the men’s division of the 2020 Badminton Asia Manila Team Championships at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

Solomon Padiz Jr. turned back Weng Soong Darrion Michael Ng, 21-10, 21-19, in the third singles match to help seal the win for the hosts, who succumbed to Chinese Taipei, 0-5, in Tuesday’s opener.

The victory kept the quarterfinal hopes of the local men’s team afloat.

For the Nationals to advance, the Taiwanese must hurdle the Singaporeans in today’s final group stage play.

After Ros Leonard Pedrosa fell to Loh Kean Yew in the first singles, 11-21, 8-21, Peter Gabriel Magnaye and Alvin Morada knotted the count by edging Jun Liang Andy Kwek and Loh Kean Hean, 22-20, 21-19.

Singapore seized the upper hand anew after Jia Heng Jason Teh trounced Lanz Ralf Zafra, 21-14, 23-21, before Philip Joper Escueta and Paul John Pantig downed Wen Xing Abel Tan and Ji Hao Howin Wong, 21-16, 21-16, to equalize and force a deciding match.

Given a chance, Padiz took advantage as he dominated the opening set and then survived Ng’s late fight back to preserve the match-clinching win.

In the women’s division, the Philippines took a 0-5 beating against Indonesia and crashed out of  title contention.

But unlike in their similar shutout loss to Thailand last Tuesday, the Filipinas put up a fight this time as Airah Mae Nicole Albo stole the first set from Gregoria Mariska Tunjung.

It turned out to be Albo’s last show of resistance, though, as Tunjung sprung to life and seized the next two sets in a 19-21, 21-11, 21-9 victory.

Then the Indons won the next four matches.