Cassey Padilla and Steven Sonsona bannered the field in the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala Dipolog leg regional age group tennis tournament which fired off at the RGS Tennis Club Friday.
Padilla swept the girls’ 12- and 14-and-under titles in last week’s PPS-PEPP leg in Oroquieta with the rising Cagayan de Oro star bracing for another fierce duel with top seed Guia Bandolis, Lianne Lanipa and Chalea Paculba, among others.
Sonsona also seeks to make back-to-back in the boys’ 16-U as he gears for a showdown with No. 1 Stephen Guia, Nilo Ledama and Bienne Villanueva.
The Tubod, Lanao ace also eyes a payback against Ledama in the 18-U side where Guia together with Al-Fhadz Matarul are also tipped to contend in the Group 2 tournament sponsored by Palawan Pawnshop headed by president/CEO Bobby Castro and presented by Slazenger.
Close to 200 entries are vying for top honors and ranking points in the five-day tournament backed by the Unified Tennis Group, led by PPS-PEPP, Cebuana Lhuillier, Wilson, Toby’s, Dunlop, Slazenger and B-Meg.
Cebu City will host the next stop of the year-long, nationwide circuit on Sept. 7-11 where the Macs Crankit Community Coaching Conference will also be held from Sept. 8-10. For details, call PPS-PEPP sports program development director Bobby Mangunay at 0915-4046464.
Meanwhile, Nash Agustines, Villanueva, Christopher Sonsona and Lex Estillore head the 32-player draw in the boys’ 14-U section while Agustines and Sonsona loom as the players to beat in the 12-U division.
Wyn Paglinawan and Faye Lim, on the other hand, banner the girls’ 16- and 18-U cast while Al Rasheed Lucman, Abdel Matarul, Kale Villamar and Vinz Bering are expected to dispute the 10-unisex diadem.