The tandem of Negrense Yannick Guba and Nico Riego de Dios posted a 7-6, 6-2 victory over the pair of Rocky Paglalunan and Joseph Arcilla Wednesday night to advance into the doubles quarterfinals of the PCA Open tennis championships at the PCA shell courts in Paco, Manila.

The 20-year-old Guba and De Dios, who are seeded eighth in the tournament, aims to book semifinal seats when they take on top seed Koreans Chung Hee Seok and Seo Yong Bum today.

Guba, who hails from La Carlota City, and De Dios demolished the duo of Carlito Rojo and Michael Mantua, 6-1, 6-1, in the second round, after cruising to a 6-1, 6-2 triumph over Lawrence Magaway and Michael Basco in the opening round.

But it was a different story for Guba, a member of the De La Salle University lawn tennis varsity team, in the singles category as Oh Seung Hoon of Korea outlasted him, 6-0, 6-7, 4-6, in their second round encounter Tuesday.

The La Carlota netter was already ahead 3-0 in the second set and had a match point in the same frame, but the Hoon refused to wilt in the face of Guba to pull off a come-from-behind win.

The tenth seed Guba beat Tonito Payumo, 6-1, 6-3, in the first round.

Moving on to the quarterfinal-round of the ladies' doubles division were top seed Czarina Mae Arevalo and Jennifer Saret, who blanked the Joanne Bibal-May Herrera pair, 6-0, 6-0, while Karen Reyes and Anna Songco came-from-behind to clobber Krissy Alina and Lourdes Benoya, 0-6, 6-0, 6-3. Also winning in the ladies' doubles were the tandems of Ivy de Castro and Alyssa Labay, sisters Bien and Bambi Zoleta, and Arra Micayabas and Aileen Rogan.

Meanwhile, Guba's younger sister, Martina, who is coming off from sickbay as she competed in three international tennis tournaments in Malaysia will arrive in Bacolod City today to see action in the 2005 Palarong Panlalawigan next week. *CIT

back to top

Provincial Palaro offers 302 golds
Yap comes up big for Chunkee Giants
Negrense enters PCA 2nd round
YBAC, DUPROS split encounters
Guba-De Dios tandem reach PCA quarterfinals