Velez, Madis claim ‘double’ in PPS Tagum

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.