THAI Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (above) chases the ball in her girls’ singles finals against Timea Babos of Hungary. Nonie Reyes

Cho Soong-Jae and Noppawan Lertcheewakarn took different routes in winning their respective divisions in the 19th Mitsubishi Lancer International Junior Tennis Championships Sunday at the Rizal Tennis Center.

Cho, the world No. 36 and the tournament’s fourth seed, clobbered second seed Borut Poc of Slovenia, 7-5, 6-1, in 95 minutes to win the boys’ crown, while the top-seeded Lertcheewakarn scraped past No. 10 seed Timea Babos of Hungary, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, to win the girls’ tiara.

“My focus was to watch out for his strong serve,” said Cho, the 18-year-old Korean who is expected to play in the top-tier Japan Open next week. “He also has a strong forehand, that’s why I tried to bring the ball on his backhand.”

“I’m a little bit tired [Sunday]. But I already know her game after beating her last week in Malaysia. She played good today compared [with] last week,” Lertcheewakarn, the 16-year-old Thai, said, referring to her straight-sets victory against Babos in the Malaysian Juniors International Tennis Federation last week.

Her win pushes Lertcheewakarn to the No. 4 rank in the world. She will campaign in India in the next two weeks and in the prestigious Wimbledon Juniors from June 23 to July 6. Lertcheewakarn reached the second round of last year’s Wimby.

Meanwhile, No. 2 Babos and compatriot Reka-Luca Jani rallied past top seed Misaki Doi of Japan and Elena Chernyakova, 6-5 (4), 6-0, 10-7, to secure the girls’ doubles title.

Second-seeded Puc teamed up with Thai Kittiphong Wachiramanowong topped the boys’ doubles after beating top seed Australians Andrew Thomas and Mark Verryth, 7-6 (1), 6-1.

Ekwe Harbour Centre-RP’s sole import

THE country’s bid to retain the Southeast Asian Basketball Association (Seaba) Champions Cup now lies heavily on the broad shoulders of Nigerian Sam Ekwe.

Korean and Thai top Mitsubishi netfest

Cho Soong-Jae and Noppawan Lertcheewakarn took different routes in winning their respective divisions in the 19th Mitsubishi Lancer International Junior Tennis Championships Sunday at the Rizal Tennis Center.

Luisito Espinosa is knocking on Malacañang’s doors in his quest to secure the prize money in a title fight he appeared in more than 10 years ago.

ATENEO survived Lyceum’s determined stand in the first two sets then asserted its might in the third to complete a 25-23, 29-27, 25-17 victory at the start of the Shakey’s V-League’s fifth season at The Arena in San Juan on Sunday.

THE Asian Tour and the National Golf Association of the Philippines (NGAP), in cooperation with host venue Wack Wack Golf and Country Club, will launch the 92nd edition of the $300,000 Philippine Open, Asia’s oldest national championship, with the “Meet the Players” press conference on Tuesday in Mandaluyong City.

A FIGHTING Philippine team gave a good account of itself against a superior field at the Asian Duathlon Championship Sunday in Chiangsaen Chianrai province, Thailand, and finished second in the team event while its young entries came up with podium finishes.

WHEREVER there are ballparks or arenas, there are memories.

I paraphrased that from Tom Stanton’s book The Final Season (not to be confused with the baseball movie with the same title) where the author attended every single home game of the Detroit Tigers in their swansong campaign at the old and venerable Tiger Stadium in 1999 in an attempt to explore what the venue and the sport meant to him and four earlier generations of his family.