My other great passion in sports is tennis

It is one sport that has given me pleasure, sense of achievement and throves of friends.

In my heydays as a club player, I stepped on the courts of almost all tennis clubs in Cebu.

There are several highlights of my tennis career of sorts: the shocked face of Bobby de la Rosa, then reigning tennis champion in UP Diliman, when, during my freshman year in UP I joined the UP Students Open.

My very first serve went in, followed the ball to the net and won the first point with a forehand volley. Since I was new, I caught Bobby’s attention because at that point, he was probably wondering who was this newbie out to challenge him for his crown.

The rest is history. I do not remember winning another point, and I never dared to join the tournament again when I found out that most UP Varsitarians were nationally ranked players.

Winning my first championship after 13 years of playing, with the late Engineer Manuel Villamor at the inaugural tournament of a new tennis club opened by the Cebu City Engineering Department (I cannot recall anymore the name of the Club but it was located right where the Robinson’s Galleria is right now).

Being adjudged with my late cousin Gines Arias as having the best uniform in one of the regular tournaments of my tennis buddies in Mandaue calling ourselves the “Nocturnal Vandals” because we played exclusively in the evenings.

Winning an exhibition match during the fiesta of Sogod, Cebu with one of the best tennis partners I ever had, former RTC Judge Eric Menchavez, where the count stood at 7 all, and I was serving at 40-30, and when my first went in, Judge Eric poached the ball at the net (the best part of his game) giving us the game and the match, and a couple of thousands of pesos from the members of the tennis club from Iligan City.

My best memories are reserved for the championship trophies that I won, together with my partner Lino Suico (who was at the time the number one player in Cebu) in a legitimate Class A doubles tournament in Mandaue.

In that tournament, you win a championship trophy and another trophy for remaining undefeated, in a team format tournament.

The finals was on a Sunday, but I had to be in Manila for very important legal matters, and was supposed to stay in the capital over the weekend as the thing that I was taking care of could not be finished until the following week.

The opportunity of winning two trophies in one tournament, and at that high level, was too rare to miss. So I decided to fly back to Cebu that Friday evening, played the remainder of my games Saturday and Sunday, and went back to Manila early Monday morning, with the two new trophies in our living room.

All these happened, without the help of Philta, or its perennial president Buddy Andrada.

I have written how useless the National Tennis Association has been, and how inept its administration was, on several occasions in the past. In all his years in Philta, I have not heard of any achievement, major or minor, that Andrada did.

Oh yes, except one.

Being able to stay at the helm of the association for decades.

If John Pages’ memory is correct, Andrada goes back to 1988, or even longer. But all the time, I cannot recall any time that he stepped on a local tennis court to find out what is the state of tennis in the country at the moment.

Philta used to be one of the best NSAs.

When I started playing tennis, my first tennis racket—a Dunlop Maxply—was bought from Philta at a big discount, under its grassroots development program.

Tennis balls are one of the most expensive sports equipment, and if you are not lucky enough to be playing in a club where the more affluent members hand off their slightly used balls to the kids, you would be playing with a ball whose hide is like that of an old beaten dog.

Philta had a program to help tennis club acquire new balls at a big discount. Then they sent national players like the Jose brothers—Johnny and Danny—to hold clinics all over the country.

I used to have one of the meanest backhands in my home club and I got that from a tip given by Danny Jose.

I thought that Buddy Andrada has long gone.

And I thought Jean-Henri Lluillier will finally head the tennis associations, after years of voluntarily spending a good part of his fortune for Philippine tennis.

Lo and behold, the Phoenix has risen once more.

I guess Buddy Andrada, being a former military man, is the epitome of what General MacArthur said that old soldiers never die, they just continue to pester the well-meaning.

I therefore join the call to limit the terms of office in all sports associations: NSAs, PSC and the POC.

In my experience, if you have not done anything significant after your second year in office, you are never going to achieve anything, except to fan your own personal ambition.

Commissioner Butch Ramirez and his well-meaning team should work first to remedy this faulty infrastructure in Philippine Sports, even if it is outside the jurisdiction of the PSC: the dynastic tendencies of these pseudo sports leaders, or Philippine Sports can never move forward.