HANGZHOU – The Sibol team of Robert de Guzman picked up a win and a loss in the Dream Three Kingdoms 2 event as the Philippines put up a semblance of a fight in the 19th Asian Games esports competitions at the Hangzhou Esports center on Wednesday.

De Guzman and his teammates first turned back the Sardor Azimov-led Uzbekistan, 1-0, before bowing, 0-1, to the Meirlan Yanmakhanov-powered Kazakhstan, to place second in Group B.

The top two squads in each group will reach the quarterfinals, which now has Kazakhstan, China and Thailand as the first qualifiers.

As the second-placed team in the group, the Philippines, which is backed by the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee, arranged a quarterfinal showdown with Hong Kong on Thursday at 2 p.m. in the esports competition making its debut in the games.

In Group A, Laos took the lead after getting past Hong Kong and Tajikistan in the morning matches.

Group C saw Vietnam stopping Kyrgyzstan, 1-0, but the latter bounced back with a triumph over Nepal, 1-0.

Vietnam stayed unbeaten after whipping Nepal, 1-0, for their second straight victory.

Meanwhile, Sibol tries its luck in DOTA 2 when it meets India on Friday.

(ai/mnm)

Alex Eala of the Philippines returns the ball to her opponent from India Bhosale Rutuja during their tennis match in the 19th Asian Games held in Guangzhou, China.

HANGZHOU, China – Tennis star Alex Eala survived a marathon first set to beat veteran Rutuja Bhosale of India, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, and advanced to the quarters of the women’s singles event in the 19th Asian Games at Olympic Sports Stadium here.

Eala, 18, needed 72 minutes and a tiebreaker to outlast her 27-year-old rival in a tightly-contested first set that thrilled a small but highly-energized crowd.

But it was a breeze in the second set for Eala to earn a quarterfinals meeting with Japanese Kyoka Okamura, a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 winner over Savanna Ly-Nguyen.

On paper, Eala holds a slight edge over her Japanese rival owing to her better ranking at No. 192 while Okamura is ranked 223rd. Apart from that, Eala also boasts of four ITF titles against only Round-of-8 rival.

Eala struggled with her serves early, committing 5 doubles against only three aces.

In the second set, she double-faulted only twice as she started to dominate the match, coming through whistling shots behind her double-fisted shots.

Eala advanced to the round-of-16 in style, blanking Sarah Ibrahim Khan of Pakistan, 6-0, 6-0.

Eala is also scheduled to play in mixed doubles with Ruben Gonzales later in the day. (ai/mnm)

Image Courtesy of: Inquirer.net

HANGZHOU, China—Rower Joanie Delgaco placed second in the semifinal heat on Friday to progress into the final of the women’s single sculls in the 19th Asian Games at the Fuyang Water Sports Center here.

The 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist stormed out of the gates before Shiho Yonekawa of Japan zoomed past her halfway into the 2,000-meter race to rule the race in eight minutes and 6.32 seconds.

Delgaco then maintained her speed throughout and arrived in 8:18.30, joining Yonekawa in the medal race along with third-placer Wing Wun Leung of Hong Kong (8:20.35).

Tokyo Olympian Cris Nievarez failed to reach the final after winding fourth in his semifinal heat in the men’s single sculls.

Nievarez timed 7:25.65, just three seconds slower than India’s Balraj Panwar (7:22.22) in the semis race where only the top three finishers from each heat advance to the finals.

China’s Liang Zhang finished ahead of the pack in 7:12.77 before Kazakhstan’s Vladislav Yakovlev checked in at second (7:19.27).

Besides Yonekawa and Wing, Delgaco will be in the company of Uzbekistan’s Anna Prakaten, China’s Liu Ruiqi and Taipei’s Huang Yi Ting in the medal race set on Monday.

Prakaten arrived the fastest in the other women’s semis heat in 7:47.88 followed by Liu (7:55.69) and Huang (8:14.36).
(ai/mnm)