Huon win tennis crown

By LARRY ANDREW
HUON Gold claimed the Lae Tennis Club’s A-grade doubles title after they beat Chemcare Group in the grand final in the Morobe capital on Saturday.
The grand final, which was played at the Lae Golf Club courts, was pushed back to Saturday after rain disrupted the finals the previous Saturday.
The initial doubles match was between level one and two which saw Gold’s Julien Banchetti and Martin Caberio winning the first set 7-6 with the game proceeding to a tie breaker against Chemcare’s Patrick Lam and Lawrence Depita.
Although Huon Gold won the set, the difference was only one game, so the second match was crucial and needed to reach six or seven to determine the winner.
The second set was level three and four which saw Huon Gold’s Victor Enejente and Ronald Naya going up against Chemcare’s Rodello Pedroza and Lea Javier to determine the champions.
Enejente and Naya put on fantastic power play to win the set 6-4, hence Huon Gold won both sets for a total of 13-10 to claim the win.
In the second doubles of the B division, RD Tuna’s Marisa Dirckze and Glenn Arcenal beat Prima Smallgoods’ Jonah Baluntang and Kila Jose 6-3.
Since the team that gets the most games in both sets, wins, RD Tuna were ahead already by three games and only needed to win the next set or get at least four games in the second doubles match.
Even though RD Tuna lost 4-6 to Prima, they still ended up with more games than Prima to win the B division grand final 10-9. Tennis club president Glenn Cabasug told The National that they had four tournaments since 2019 and no team had won twice.
He said Chemcare almost did it in this tournament.
According to Cabasug, the previous winners were Zenag (July, 2019), Reca Engineering Management (November, 2019), Chemcare (B division, 2020), and Lae Biscuit Company (A division, 2020).
He thanked all their sponsors and partners, including the golf club, for making the tournament a success.