Otico stuns Japanese foe

Bryan Otico, fresh from his career breakthrough win at PCA Open last week, ripped Japanese Nowa Matsubayashi, 6-3, 6-2, to launch his title drive in Week 2 of the Phinma-PSC Juniors Tennis Championships at the Manila Polo Club in Forbes Park yesterday.

Otico, who skipped the first of the two-week Group 4 ITF (International Tennis Federation) 18-and-under event to compete in the PCA Open where he stunned veteran PJ Tierro in a five-set thriller, overpowered Matsubayashi with his superb all around game to complete the lopsided result. He will next face the winner in the Danial Ahmad Farid of Malaysia-Kyle Tang of Hong Kong duel.

Jose Maria Pague and Michael Eala also fashioned out a pair of straight-set triumphs to somehow make up for the early exits of Matthew Garcia, Stephan Lhuillier, Rucel Cero, Marco Ayala and Sebastien Lhuillier in the ranking event sponsored by the Philippine Investment Management Consultants (Phinma) and Technifiber and sanctioned by the Philippine Tennis Association (Philta).

Pague survived a tough first round encounter with Chinese Sida Zeng before reasserting his might in the next to complete a 7-5, 6-3 triumph while the sixth-ranked Eala, who reached the quarters in Week I ruled by Japanese Shunuke Mitsui over local bet Arthur Pantino, turned back Japanese Mikihisa Matzuzaki, 6-3, 6-4.

Eala takes on the winner of the match pitting Indonesian Jerail Yasin and Chinese Xie Yu Lun.

Garcia dropped a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Kei Manaka; Stephan Lhuillier bowed to American Jericho Grollman, 6-2, 6-2 and Cero yielded to Malaysian Darrshan Suresh, 7-5, 6-3.

Ayala lost to Hong Kong’s Marvin Lee, 6-1, 6-1; and Sebastien Lhuillier succumbed to No. 5 Odeda Arazza of Indonesia, 6-0, 6-1, in the week-long tournament ITF-sanctioned tournament supported by Technifiber ball as official ball, official hotel Jinjiang Inn, Makati and the Philippine Sports Commission.

With Otico in the fold, Mitsui settled for the No. 2 seeding with the Japanese clashing with Filipino Joseph Tiamson at presstime.