FOURTH-RANKED Eric Jed Olivarez pulled through in a break-filled opening set skirmish then clipped No. 2 Jose Maria Pague in the next to hack out a 7-5, 6-1 victory and arrange a showdown with top seed Johnny Arcilla for the Lanao del Norte National Open crown at the MCC courts in Tubod on Wednesday.
Arcilla, out to atone for her semis setback to eventual winner John Bryan Otico in the recent Malita Open in Davao Occidental, held off third ranked Vicente Anasta, 6-4, 6-3, in the upper half of the 64-player draw that featured the country’s leading players and rising stars.
Olivarez and Pague kicked off their semis duel in break-break fashion and after trading serves in the next three games, the latter broke the former to seize a 4-2 lead. But Olivarez broke back in the seventh in a long-drawn duel, only to yield the next on his serve as Pague kept a two-game cushion.
But Olivarez broke back again in another protracted clash then dominated the next to draw level before breaking his rival again, this time in imposing fashion that saw him yield just one point to clinch the pivotal win.
He scored the first three points in the 12th game and went on to snare the hotly-disputed set.
After a held-held start in the second frame, Olivarez broke Pague then held serve twice and broke the latter a couple of times to earn a crack at the top P50,000 purse in the week-long championship put up by Gov. Imelda Quibranza-Dimaporo.
Arcilla, on the other hand, seized an early 4-2 lead against Anasta and gained the head-start on a held-held game in the next four. The veteran Davis Cupper and winner of a number of Open titles last year, broke Anasta again in the first game of the second set, held serve in the next and kept the lead the rest of the way, rolling to another finals stint by breaking Anasta in the ninth in shutout fashion.
On their way to the finals of the event held in conjunction with Lanao del Norte’s 64th founding anniversary, Olivarez foiled junior champion Dave Palanas, 6-3, 6-3, routed John Sonsona, 6-1, 6-3, before repulsing Dave Mosqueda, 7-5, 6-4, while Arcilla eased past John Atay, 6-1, 6-1, survived Jude Ceniza, 6-0, 5-7, 10-5, before ripping Eric Tangub, 6-2, 6-3.
Also on tap are competitions in basketball, volleyball, football, cycling with tennis serving as the highlight of the 10-day festivities, according to Provincial Sports coordinator Nelson Lasola.