By Patrick Oliver Montaño |
February 24, 2023—Exhibiting their bonzer athletic prowess, Zander Tumanday of Salamanca Cluster and Romano Lepardo of Jerusalem Cluster carved a spectacular feat as they reigned over their opponents in their respective brackets in the Men’s Table Tennis Finals at Ateneo de Davao University - Senior High School (AdDU-SHS) Robotics Laboratory.
Facing off in Bracket A, Tumanday clobbered Meg Gabriel Masillones of Pamplona Cluster with a complete domination of 3–0 (11-4, 11-6, 11-5), while Lepardo trampled down Karlo-J Tan Du of Rome Cluster with a wide gap of 3 – 0 (11-4, 11-7, 11-7) in Bracket B.
Tigers on Top
Starting the championship matches, Tumanday launched consecutive forceful attacks on the double as the first set began against Masillones, gaining the advantage with a score of 8-1. The gap continued to widen as errors from Masillones’ side occurred, with Tumanday constantly releasing excellent attacks, ending the set to 11-4.
As the second set began, net errors and out-of-bound attacks were seen from both players, but Tumanday quickly recovered his momentum and took the driver’s seat ahead of Masillones, 7-3. Trying to minimize the gap, Masillones displayed tremendous cross-court shots yet was unable to faze the propulsion of Tumanday, eventually falling behind at the end of the second set, 11-6.
Armed with his forehand attacks, Tumanday stacked successive points at the beginning of the third set to take the lead, 3-1. Masillones replied with a series of attacks to decrease the deficit to 1, but it was followed by back-to-back out-of-bound errors, which ballooned the separation and ended the match, 11-5.
“Confidence lang at ‘di mo kailangan isipin na kailangan manalo. You just have to play and go with the flow; you have to think and focus lang sa game, sa kalaban mo, in yourself, and don’t mind the environment. I think that makes me concentrate sa game,” Tumanday stated.
(Just be confident, and you don't need to think you must win. You just have to play and go with the flow; you have to think and focus only on the game, on your opponent, on yourself, and don't mind the environment. I think that makes me concentrate on the game.)
Full of Fuego
The intensity inside the venue doubled as the first set of the championship match between Lepardo and Tan Du started. A fast-paced battle was seen right off the bat, with Lepardo releasing smashes to set the distance to 6-2. Without giving a chance of retaliation, Lepardo decided to finish the set with straight attacks, ending the set 11-4.
The lopsided play continued, with Lepardo delivering sharp smashes on the second set to set the score at 6-1. Tan Du fell short with his counter-attacks as Lepardo kept propelling forward, taking the set 11-7.
Determined to finish the match, forehand smashes filled the table coming from Lepardo as the third set began, but Tan Du kept the score close to two, 5-3. Slowly gaining his composure, Tan Du exchanged attacks with Lepardo, resulting in a deadlock, 7-7. But Lepardo was quick on his feet and racked up four following points to grab the set, 11-7.
Battle for Bronze
After the championship matches, the battle for third place followed. In Bracket A, Barcelona Cluster won against the Jerusalem Cluster with a score of 2 – 0 (13-11, 11-9), while in Bracket B, Salamanca Cluster won over the Montserrat Cluster with a score of 2 – 0 (11-7, 11-8).
Overall, the final rankings are as follows:
Bracket A
Champion: Salamanca
1st runner-up: Pamplona
2nd runner-up: Barcelona
3rd runner-up: Jerusalem
4th runner-up: Montserrat
5th runner-up: Manresa
6th runner-up: Rome
7th runner-up: Paris
Bracket B
Champion: Jerusalem
1st runner-up: Rome
2nd runner-up: Salamanca
3rd runner-up: Montserrat
4th runner-up: Barcelona
5th runner-up: Pamplona
6th runner-up: Manresa
7th runner-up: Paris
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