THREE young Filipina girls proved how tough they can get when confronted by tougher opponents in the international scene.
The team of Carmencita Carlos, Alexandra Eala and Gaby Zoleta recently showed what they were capable of doing when the trio powered the Philippine national under-14 girls team to a four-game sweep in New Delhi, India.
At the end of their four-game assignment, they emerged unbeaten after putting away Jordan, 3-0, in the finals.
“We played good, we beat everybody,” said national junior coach Tom Falcis.
The fourth triumph allowed the Filpinas to claim the crown in the 2017 Asia Oceania pre-qualifying zone tournament last week in New Delhi, India.
The first victory was tallied by Carlos, a sixth grader from Keys School, Manila.
She pulled off 6-3, 6-3 triumph over Randa Al-Qudsi.
Then, Eala, a Grade 6 student at Colegio San Agustin in Makati City came up with a 6-0, 6-0 blanking of Jana Al-Khatib.
“We did not get too much challenge. These girls are good,” said Falcis.
In the doubles, Eala got help from Zoleta, a Grade 8 student at Bristol Integrated School in Lucena City.
They stopped Al-Qudsi and Haya Joudeh, 6-0, 6-0, to finalize the win in the Philippines’ favor.
Their title win erased memories of last year’s campaign in Nonthaburi, Thailand.
That time, the Filipinas, who were coached by Czarina Arevalo, took a 1-2 setback from Sri Lanka in the pre-qualifying finals.
This allowed them to keep a winning streak going into the final qualifying tournament of the World Junior Tennis competition when it gets going weeks from now.
Since the top two teams are qualified, Jordan will join the Philippines in the next stage of the qualifiers which will take place in Bangkok, Thailand from March 20 to April 1.
Here, Falcis feels that competition will definitely be more challenging.
“That’s a good challenge for us. The competition will be a higher level. We expect to win a few matches.
From there, the top four teams of each events will qualify automatically to the World Group Finals, which will be in Prostejov, Czech Republic from Aug. 1 to 6.
Falcis believed that the girls can at least make it to the semifinals.
“That’s our goal. Make the semifinals. From there, we’ll see if we play well,” said Falcis.