AFTER a shocking second round exit in the opening week, the top-seeded duo of Cebuano netter Arthur Craig Pantino and compatriot John Bryan Otico made sure that the ghost of the past won’t haunt them as they scored some measure of revenge against Kun Liu and Sumitpal Singh, 6-0, 3-6, 10-4, to advance to the quarterfinal round of the PTT – International Tennis Federation (ITF) Week 2 yesterday in Thailand.
It can be recalled that Singh, along with Dipin Wadhwa, overcame an opening set loss to stun the top-seeded pair of Pantino and Otico, 2-6, 6-4, 10-8, in the PTT-ITF Week 1 last Thursday.
The 16-year-old Pantino also continued his hot run in singles play as he defeated Thailand’s Pawin Jirapoomdaje, 6-4, 6-3, to make it to the third round, where he is set to take on a formidable tormentor in Japan’s Keisuke Saitoh, who defeated him in the second round of the PHINMA-PSC International Juniors 2 last November in Manila.
Also joining Pantino in the third round is Otico, who dominated Japanese Taiyo Hirano, 6-2, 6-1, to set up a date with Michael Mathayomchand of Thailand today.