LOCAL celebrities teamed up with four of the country’s best tennis players and slugged it out with the recently-crowned UAAP champions, the UST Tennisters, during the third leg of the first-ever 96.3 WRock University Challenge last Mar. 8 at the UST Tennis Courts.
The Rock n’ Roll All Star Team, composed of actors Mandy Ochoa, Miguel Vera, brothers Kier and Zoren Legazpi and RP team tennis players Johnny Arcilla, Adelo Abadia, Jun-Jun Toledo and Joseph Victorino got the better of the UST team, 5-2.
In the first doubles, UST’s Karl Santamaria and UAAP Most Valuable Player Gabby Remigio defeated the country’s number two player Abadia and Ochoa, 10-8.
After a six-all deadlock, Santamaria and Remigio rallied to set the pace in their favor and eventually hold on to the win.
The second doubles match, however, saw the Rock n’ Roll All-Stars tie the game behind the country’s number one player Arcilla and Vera’s 10-8 victory over UST’s Marco Lua and Art Phillip Calingasan.
UAAP Rookie of the Year Pius Ocampo and Richard Somes, meanwhile, controlled the game’s tempo from the opening serve to give UST the one game lead with an easy 10-6 win against Victorino and Zoren Legazpi.
The Rock n’ Roll All-Stars, however, drew level once more after Toledo and Kier Legazpi beat Art Thomas Calingasan and Francis Venzon, 10-7.
With the game even at two games apiece, the nationals took over to dominate the singles competition.
Abadia made short work of Remigio in the first singles match, 8-1, while Victorino followed-up with an 8-5 victory against Santamaria to seal the win for the Rock n’ Roll All-Stars.
Despite the All-Stars’ win, the final match was still pushed through with Arcilla defeating Ocampo, 8-2.
Eventhough the Rock n’ Roll All-Stars won, they had a relatively harder time with the UST Tennisters compared with their easy victories over De La Salle University and Ateneo de Manila University.
The All-Stars went smooth sailing against the Archers and the Eagles, whom they defeated 3-1 and 4-0, respectively, during the doubles competition.
“Kitang-kita na nahirapan sila kasi napilitan silang gamitin iyong mga national players nila sa singles games,” Santamaria said.
Ochoa affirmed this when he addressed the pro-Thomasian crowd after the game. The actor also said that their game against UST was the most successful staging due to the amazing crown turnout and the incomparable levels of matches. Dexter R. Matilla
