MANILA, Philippines—From dusty back lots of Cagayan de Oro City to the hallowed grounds of the Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne, Australia, Filipino tennis sensation Francis Casey Alcantara has come a long way.

On Saturday, the once scrawny 16-year-old who had to bulk up over the holidays, became the first Filipino to win a Grand Slam event after pairing with a Taiwanese for the boys doubles title of the Australian Open tennis championships.

Alcantara, known to friends as Niño, paired with 17-year-old Cheng-Peng Hsieh to demolish Mikhal Biryukov of Russia and Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan, 6-4, 6-2, in the final match to achieve what no Filipino has done before. En route to the championship, the duo did not drop a single set and only twice did they have to play a tiebreak.

“I don’t know what to say. I’m very happy. I guess it still has to sink in,” Alcantara, the Philippines’ top-ranked junior player and No. 20 in the world, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer over the phone from the bus back to his hotel.

Filipino youngster Felix Barrientos reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon juniors singles in 1985, the year he was ranked No. 1 in the world in the junior circuit. In 1953 tennis great and Hall of Famer Felicisimo “Mighty Mite” Ampon won the Wimbledon Plate—a tournament for first- and second-round losers of the Wimbledon mens singles.

Alcantara’s triumph drew appreciation from local and foreign-based Filipino tennis fans who swarmed the Australian Open website with a deluge of congratulatory messages.

The doubles title more than made up for his first-round upset loss to unseeded Swede Daniel Berta in the boys’ singles where Alcantara was seeded 10th.

New teamup

In the doubles he and Hsieh, last year’s champion with a different partner, were seeded seventh as a pair. The Asian pair, which teamed up only this year, bowed out in the second round of the tune-up event, the Nottingham Invitational, two weeks back.

“The general plan was to be aggressive and to attack the net,” said his coach Junjun Toledo. “The opponents are bigger so we can’t afford to play their game.”

That’s what the 5-foot-7 Alcantara and the 6-foot Hsieh did as they broke their opponents right in the opening game and held on to take the first set.

Alcantara said they were prepared for a tough time in the second set, but after posting a 5-1 lead, he said he could already smell the victory.

3rd Grand Slam title

The match was over in just 44 minutes in the sweltering Australian summer heat, which two days earlier reached 45 degrees Celsius and caused the quarterfinal match between them and German’s Kevin Krawietz and Dominik Schulz to be postponed.

It was Hsieh’s third Grand Slam boys doubles title. He won in Melbourne and in Wimbledon last year. The 15th seeded Taiwanese was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the boys singles draw.

Alcantara is the eldest of three children. He learned to play tennis from his father who passed away six years ago.

“I dedicate this to him,” said Alcantara whose mother Sarah, a government employee, was there cheering him at the sidelines.

Davis Cup prospect

It was also an advanced birthday gift for the young netter who will turn 17 on Feb. 4. They are scheduled to arrive home late Sunday and return to his studies at the Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City where he is a high school senior.

Already, there was talk of him getting a slot in the Philippine Davis Cup training team, something Toledo welcomed.

“That’s great news, I played in the Davis Cup before and I know how it will help him with his confidence,” said Toledo. His stint in the Australian Open was sponsored by Cebuana Lhuillier and tennis patron Oscar Hilado.

It was complete domination for Alcantara and Hsieh, who combined to make 87 percent of their first serves against Biryukov and Uchiyama’s 72 percent. They also posted 60 percent accuracy in second serves against their opponents’ 41 percent.

Soon after Alcantara fell to Berta (3-6, 4-6) in the boys singles, his tandem with Hsieh went full steam ahead, beating Toni Androic of Croatia and Sudarwa Sitaram of India (6-3, 6-4) in the first round and James Chaudry of Britain and John Morrisey of Ireland (6-0, 6-3) in the second round.

They also hurdled Krawietz and Schulz, 6-4, 7-6 (5), and booted out Austria’s Maximilian Neuchrist and Tristan Samuel Weissborn, 7-6 (4), 6-4, in the semi-finals to barge into the championship match. Inquirer.Net

ILOILO CITY – Players from Barotac Nuevo town have broken the world record for marathon soccer by playing for over 35 hours.

Organizers and officials of the World Football Marathon (WFM) will meet today to finalize the documentation of the match, including the continuous video coverage of all the games, in order for the event to be certified by the Guinness World Records (GWR), Duffie Botavara, secretary general of the Iloilo Football Association, told The STAR.

“We are preparing the documentation and the records of the game for our efforts to be recognized,” he said, adding that for now, the record is unofficial.

Organizer Elmer Bedia, a former national player and Philippine’s Mr. Football in 1986, explained that a GWR certification in favor of the WFM is required to break the record set in Australia.

The soccer teams of Barotac Nuevo Comprehensive National High School (BNCNHS) and the Iloilo State College of Fisheries (ISCOF) played against each other for 35 hours and 20 minutes at the town’s public plaza.

The match began around 8:40 a.m. Friday and ended at around 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

A total of 19 games were played, each lasting for 45 minutes.

ISCOF prevailed over BNCNHS, 136-133, in what Botavara called “a tight match.”

“It wasn’t a giveaway match. Both teams played tight defense, the reason for the low score, unlike that in Australia,” he said, comparing their match to the one in Armidale, Australia, where Joeys Football Club won with about a hundred point-advantage over its opponent in a game that lasted for 32 hours and 50 minutes.

Of the 19 games played, ISCOF and BNCNHS each won eight matches, and tied in three.

“Although the players were already tired, they could have played one more game, had it not been for the coaches who decided to end the game,” Botavara said.

In fact, he added, the last game was very physical, with one player shoving his opponent at one point.

“Their intensity was so great they were still putting up tight defense up to the last match. It was so intense that the teams nearly got into a fight when one player shoved his opponent during the last game,” he said.

“I expected the players to only last until 8 a.m. Saturday because at around 2 a.m. that day, they were no longer running. Now I believe in the passion and commitment of our players,” Botavara stressed.

After the last game, 4th District Rep. Ferjenel Biron awarded the players from the two teams with cash and medals. Philstar.com

MANILA, Philippines – Thea Minor, a Fil-Am tennis player, had an early holiday celebration when she won three championship titles and three runner-up crowns in three separate junior tennis tournaments in New Zealand.

Minor, who was born and raised in Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), competed for the second straight year as a member of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Pacific Oceania Touring Team.

She was joined by fellow CNMI junior netters Rafael Jones and Christian Miller, and Pacific Oceania teammate Tarani Kamoe of Fiji.

Minor teamed up with Kamoe in the girls’ 14-and-under doubles to win three titles while also claiming second place honors in three singles events.

She began her New Zealand stint in the Coca-Cola Waikato Junior Open in Hamilton where she celebrated her 13th birthday last December 11 wining the 14-and-under doubles title with Kamoe.

The Minor-Kamoe tandem defeated Fiji’s Annie Shannon and hometown bet Toni Katipa in the girls’ 14-and-under doubles finals, 6-3, 6-1. Minor and Kamoe also entered the 16-and-under doubles finals but lost to the second seed pair of Kerry Hampton and Ellie Verran of New Zealand.

Minor, however, was not that lucky in the singles event where she lost in the quarterfinals of the 14- and 16-and-under divisions.

The Pacific Oceania Touring Team then headed to Gisborne, northeast of New Zealand’s capital of Wellington, for the second tournament which is the Poverty Bay East Coast Ray White Junior Championship where Minor once again teamed up with Kamoe to claim the 14-and-under doubles title.

Minor, however, was unlucky anew in the singles event, losing to Kamoe in the 14-and-under finals and in the consolation draw of the 16-and-under division.

She then capped her impressive stint in New Zealand with another doubles crown and a runner-up finish in the Auckland Christmas Tournament.

Her tested partnership with Kamoe earned the Pacific Oceania team a third doubles crown at the Scarbro Tennis Centre in Nicholson Park. Minor and Kamoe were unseeded in the tournament but scored a 6-1, 6-1 upset of the No.2 ranked pair of Georgina and Kirsty Hayr of Auckland.

Minor remained unlucky in the singles event suffering a 6-0, 6-0 defeat at the hands of top seed Louise Oxnevad of Queensland.

Aside from receiving certificates and medals, she also received a cash prize from Poverty Bay and Auckland tournaments..

The three tournaments attracted the best and upcoming junior players in the Pacific Oceania region, Australia and New Zealand where close to 600 participated.

Minor returns to Saipan to join her parents, Boyet and Joy, and sister Theecel for the Christmas holiday. Her father Boyet works as a civil engineer in an architectural firm since arriving in Saipan in the early 90s. GMANews.TV

GMA News

MANILA, Philippines – Seeing the Chinese collecting gold medals one after the other, Filipino Steven Luis Ngo put on a show of his own en route to the championship in the gold and spear event in the second World Junior Wushu Championship on Tuesday in Bali, Indonesia.

Not minding the Chinese’s 10-gold romp in the tournament, Ngo banked on a combination of grace, speed and power to garner 9.31 points and beat Indonesia’s Erwin Wijayanto.

The 15-year-old’s gold-medal effort in this event that gathered 60 teams from all over the world was the Filipino’s best finish since winning a bronze medal two years ago in Korea.

Ngo’s performance capped his impressive showing in the worlds, emerging as RP’s most bemedalled athlete after also securing a silver medal in straight sword event. Ngo lost the gold to Wijayanto by just a point.

The Nationals also clinched two more silver medals courtesy of Henson See and Francesca Bernasconi.

Bernasconi, a gold medalist in spear two years ago, earned a silver in broadsword. See also settled for second in the same event in the boys’ category.

It was a vindication of sorts for the Pinoy wushu bets, whose campaign was reportedly threatened by a lack of funding.

See was beaten by a Singaporean rival while Bernascono, the most decorated junior player of the country, was upstaged by a Chinese bet.

Philippine Entertainment Portal

Dating couple Geoff Rodriguez and Tisha Silang of the Philippines made it to the final leg of Amazing Race Asia 3 after finishing second in tonight’s episode. Tisha and Geoff will join Malaysia’s Ida and Tania, who stepped on the mat first, and Hong Kong boys Vince and Sam, who came in third place, in the 11th and final leg.

The finale episode of Amazing Race Asia 3 will be aired next Thursday, November 20, in AXN.

Amazing Race Asia 3 is the third installment of the popular reality game show, which is actually a spin-off of the Emmy award-winning reality show Amazing Race. It is hosted by Singapore-based Chinese-American actor Allan Wu.

Geoff and Tisha now have the chance to become the first team from the Philippines to win Amazing Race Asia and the $100,000 cash prize. They will also have the chance to erase or at least duplicate the third-place finish of Marc Nelson and Rovilson Fernandez last season.

Geoff and Tisha are actually good friends with Marc and Rovilson.

At the start of the 10th leg, Geoff and Tisha were in third place; behind the teams from Hong Kong and Malaysia. In fourth place was A.D. and Fuzzie of Singapore.

Geoff and Tisha were actually behind most of the 10th leg when they made some crucial errors. First was when they failed to answer correctly the year Mahatma Gandhi, India’s major spiritual and political leader, was born (1869). Then, in Detour (a task that all teams must perform), both Geoff and Tisha had a hard time counting the exact number of nuts inside a sack.

Luckily, all teams got lost going to the Roadblock (a task that only one member of the team can pefrorm) in Muscat, Oman, so Geoff and Tisha arrived there the same time as the other teams. Geoff also finished the Roadblock easily that enabled them to came in second, behind the team from Malaysia.

The team from Singapore, which finished last, got eliminated.

Amazing Race Asia 3 started with ten teams from different Asian countries, including India, South Korea, and Thailand. After each leg, one team gets eliminated, although there are pre-determined non-elimination legs.

Throughout the race, Geoff and Tisha made some enemies mainly because of Geoff’s attitude that turned off the other teams. It was also only Geoff and Tisha who chose to use the Yield and U-Turn against the other teams this season. A team that was yielded will have to wait for a pre-determined time before continuing the race, while the team that was U-Turned has to do the other detour that they did not previously completed.

Tisha was crowned Bb. Pilipinas-Universe in 1998 but resigned due to her Canadian citizenship. She also tried hosting before in some shows of GMA-7, including Mornings@GMA. Tisha also had a relationship with TV host Paolo Bediones.

Geoff, on the other hand, was a member of the all-male group Powerboys, which also included Jordan Herrera, Frank Garcia, Greg martin, and Jay Salas.

ABS-CBN News

BALI, Indonesia — Two Filipinos won gold medals in the recently concluded 15th World Shoot of the International Practical Shooting Confederation held in Bali, Indonesia from October 26-November 2, 2008.

Ma. Inez Feria Jorge of Team True Weight Philippines won the gold in the Production – Ladies category, besting other Filipinos as well as competitors from Russia, the Czech Republic, Australia, Norway, Italy, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and Brazil.

Jorge previously topped the same category in the 2007 Austral-Asia Championships held in Pattaya, Thailand on December 5, 2007. Jorge trains under Coach Jojo Naranjilla while undergoing general strength and endurance conditioning workouts with Coach Jimbo Saret.

Wilfredo Anglo won the gold in the Production – Seniors category, besting 41 other competitors with an impressive 1894.6547 points.

Practical shooting is a sport that challenges an individual’s ability to shoot rapidly and accurately with a full power handgun, rifle, and/or shotgun. To do this, shooters take on obstacle-laden shooting courses called stages. The World Shoot, which is held every three years, is considered as the Olympics of Practical Shooting and the best shooters of each IPSC member region participate in this very prestigious event.

GMA News

MANILA, Philippines – Jericho Bañares caught a big fish on his way to advancing in the World Pool Association-backed World 10-Ball Championship Wednesday at the Philippine International Convention Center.

Bañares defeated former world champion Thorsten Hohmann of Germany 9-7 to book a seat in the 64-man knockout stage.

“I’d like to think that luck was on my side,” Bañares, who turns 19 Thursday, said. “I got the balls right where I wanted them to be and besides, I’ve played Hohmann before and I beat him.”

Bañares routed Hohmann in a Mandaluyong tournament earlier this year and it appeared that way again when the Filipino racked six straight wins to take a 6-2 lead.

Hohmann took advantage of a dry break by Bañares in the ninth table to start a four-rack streak and make it 6-all.

Ahead 8-7, Bañares cleaned up the 16th after a Hohmann off-angled safety shot.

Germany had reason to smile, however, after Ralf Souquet and Oliver Hortmann made it through the round of 64.

Bañares, the national juniors champion, joined Tuesday qualifiers Marlon Manalo, Victor Arpilleda, Demosthenes Pulpul and Leonardo Didal.

Among the RP casualties have been Florencio Banar and Elvis Calasang. After dropping their games Tuesday, Elmer Kalaquian and Mario Tolentino also bowed out.

Kalaquitan lost 9-6 to Wang Ming of China, while Tolentino fell 9-5 to Chang Lu-Yung of Chinese-Taipei.

Antonio Gabica, the reigning Asian Games champion, was also eliminated.

Lin Yuan-Chun of Chinese-Taipei, the women’s world 9-ball champion, was swept by Corey Deuel of the US 9-0.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

ASEAN karting queen Michele Bumgarner made history in the Rock Island Grand Prix in Illinois by becoming the first female champion in the world’s largest street kart racing event.

Bumgarner bagged the Tag Seniors crown, also earning her the distinction as the seventh foreign-born winner in the event’s 14-year history.

With the victory, the media is now making comparison of her to Danica Patrick, who also emerged the first female champion of Rock Island’s counterpart, the Indy Racing League, last April.

The 19 year old bet surprised everyone as a first-timer in the event when she piloted the Margay Team to a 1-2-3-4 finish and clocked 11 minutes and 24.144sec.

Teammate Kyle Erdmann came in 0.916sec behind for second place, while Scott Hamble and Brett Johnson finished third and fourth places, respectively.

For years, the Rock Island Grand Prix has been known as a stepping stone to barge into the Indy Racing League (IRL) and has drawn hundreds of entries annually from all over the world, including Argentina, Bermuda, Colombia, Costa Rica, England, France, Italy and Mexico as well as Canada and the United States.

“This will stick with me my whole career. Everyone goes on about how great this race is and it’s special that this is my first time here and my first win here. I hope to come back,” said Bumgarner, who credited the support of Margay’s experienced crew that includes crew chief and former RIGP champ Rick Fulks and RIGP’s winningest racer until last year Jason Birdsell.

Bumgarner is also backed up by Petron XCS, Spectrum-OSO Asia, Department of Tourism, Molecule, City Kart Racing, Oakley and Goodyear.

“I’ve got fantastic support here,” Bumgarner said. “How could I not be up front?”

Even RIGP officials were impressed, predicting a promising racing career for Bumgarner who’s planning to move to Indianapolis to pursue hopes of going the Indy Racing League route by the end of the year.

“I think she has a pretty bright career ahead of her, and it depends on how that career goes,” RI Grand Prix president Roger Ruthhart said. “It served us well when Scott Speed went on to Formula One, with him saying how he had been a Rock Island Grand Prix champion. It could be the same thing with Michele.”

Bumgarner didn’t come to Rock Island with expectations to win. But the media already speculated her historic feat after posting a top qualifying speed of 33.096 seconds that made her the first female pole-winner in RIGP history.

“I didn’t come here intending to be a trailblazer, but it’s an extra perk,” she said. “What I know is, it was going to be a close race to the end.”

GMA News

MANILA, Philippines- A six-year old Filipino ice skater bagged several medals at an international ice skating competition last month in Malaysia, a GMA News report said on Saturday.

Ashley Belizario bested contestants from 10 other Asian countries and took home one gold and three silver medals from several categories during the event dubbed Skate Asia 2008 the Malaysian capital city, Kuala Lumpur, said the report aired over QTV’s Balitanghali.

Belizario is a kindergarten student in Paref Woodrose School, a private school for girls in Ayala Alabang, in Manila’s southern suburb of Muntinlupa City.

She is now preparing for another world ice skating competition that would be held next year in the United States, the report said.