TENNIS SUPERSTARS. Country’s top men’s player Johnny Arcilla and Cebu’s top junior netter Jan Godfrey “Noy” Seno will play in today’s start of the Peugeot Tennis Open Cebu qualifying leg at the Cebu Country Club
Some 80 tennisters from all over the country led by two of the country’s top players, Johnny Arcilla and Francis Casey Alcantara, will be trying their luck in the Cebu leg of the Peugeot Philippines Tennis Open which comes off wraps today at the tennis courts of the Cebu Country Club in Banilad, Cebu City.
The Cebu leg is the 4th regional leg in this tournament which features a Men’s and Women’s Open in singles and doubles events with the winners of all legs to qualify for the national finals from February 15 to 21 in Metro Manila, wherein the six grand winners of the singles and doubles events will get an expense paid trip to Paris, France to watch Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams defend their French Open titles at the red clay courts of Roland Garros.
Cebu’s top junior netter Jan Godfrey “Noy” Seno, tournament organizer Francisco “Pet” Santos, tournament secretary Milfra Rosales and country’s top player Johnny Arcilla.
Already contested were regional legs in Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod and Nueva Ecija while the NCR leg, which will serve as the final regional leg, will be held from February 1 to 7 at the Valle Verde Country Club in Pasig City.
Arcilla and Hannah Grace Espinosa are named as the top seeds for the men’s and women’s divisions, respectively. Both have Cebuano roots with Arcilla having resided here during his youth while Espinosa used to lord it over in the age group here in Cebu. She is currently based in Manila as a varsity player of the National University.
Other seeded players in the men’s open are Cagayan de Oro’s Alcantara, Roel Capangpangan, Marcen Angelo Gonzalez, Calvin Canlas, Claudio Canlas and Luke Alquin Flores.
Leading the charge in defending the locals’ home turf is Israel RJ Abarquez, who is seeded third.
Other seeded players in the women’s open are Ma. Dominique Ong, Erika Manduriao and Macy Gonzales.
“As of now, the winners in the singles and doubles finals in February will get an all-expense paid trip to watch the French Open in May in France but our long term goal is to identify talent in this tournament, develop their skills and prepare them to compete in one of the four major world tournaments,” said tournament supervisor Mario Craiz.
The French Open is considered as one of the four major tournaments in the world at par with the Wimbeldon in England, US Open, and Australian Open.
Craiz said they want to produce more players like Alcantara, a native of Cagayan De Oro City and the only Filipino that has won in the Australian Open Boy’s Doubles event together with Hsieh Cheng-peng in 2009.
“We want to produce more of the likes of Alcantara with our tennis program. For now, we will focus on producing men’s and women’s tournaments to give our players in the regions a chance to play against country’s strong players,” said Craiz.
According to Craiz, Peugeot is committed to bring the sport of tennis in the Philippines to a higher level, of world class standards exclusive for Filipinos only.
The tournament is backed by the Peugeot Philippines president Glen Dasig and will be officiated by event organizer Francisco “Pet” Santos. Also helping in organizing this event is Philippine Tennis Association Central Visayas vice president Ken Salimbangon.
The top winners in each leg receives P20,000 while the national winners with P40,000. The tournament is also made possible by Smart Communications, Wilson and Total.
Peugeot is the official transport in the ATP World Tour and has been one of the major sponsors in the Roland Garros for 32 years. PRESS RELEASE
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