Cebu Sports Blog by John Pages

18 Points from the ’08 Australian Open

1. I like Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. When he meets Novak Djokovic at 4 p.m. (RP time) later for the final, I’ll cheer for him. I hope he wins. And if he plays like he did against Rafael Nadal, he’ll win. But will the enormity of a Grand Slam final rattle his brain? And unnerve him? I hope not. Because watching him play Nadal, it’s hard to find someone so unruffled, unaffected, unflappable. Yet…

2. Djokovic will win. I hate to say this but he will. Tsonga (pronounced “Songa”) is playing in only his fifth career Grand Slam event. Novak? He played at last September’s U.S. Open final. So he’s experienced and, at world no.3, more reliable in pressure-cooker situations like today. Still…

3. I hope Tsonga wins.

4. Back to Tsonga-Nadal: In all the decades I’ve watched this sport, I must rate Tsonga’s game that night as one of the most immaculate and masterful I’ve seen. Nadal is no slouch. He runs like a cheetah and is built like Hulk Hogan. Nobody—not even the great Federer—embarrasses Nadal. Until Tsonga did last Thursday.

5. Is Tsonga for real? Where did he come from? Is he, as so many are, a one-event fluke? A star who glitters today but who’ll evaporate tomorrow? No, no. A former US Open junior champ, the reason why he’s appeared only now is because he’s been badly injured. But now that he’s healthy, enemies beware…

6. “Floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee.” Does that refer to someone?

Djokovic the Djoker

An Australian comments on the Australian Open

GRAEME MACKINNON sent me this comment two days after Jo-Wilfried Tsonga demolished Rafael Nadal and a day after Novak Djokovic did the same to Roger Federer. His commentary below couldn’t have been more correct. (Keep in mind that the reason why Graeme is an excellent writer is because, lest you forget, he was a writer… a long-time sports columnist at The Freeman before he went back to the Land of Oz a few years back.) And as we await the Men’s Final tomorrow (Sunday), let’s ponder on these words by Graeme…

There have been many fairy tale endings to many tournaments competitions etc and this could be an other one. As you know I have been watching Tsonga for a while now and have been, to be perfectly honest, waiting for him to crumble under the weight of expectation but it has not happened . . . yet!

Shocker!

Ana: How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Yesterday, my mobile phone beeped at 1:10 p.m. It was my dad, Bunny, with this text message: “John… your favorite was clobbered by Hantuchova in the 1st set, 6-0… Also, she got broken in the 1st game of the 2nd set… Hope she recovers but it’s a big mismatch thus far…”

The big tennis fan that he is, my dad spoke of the ongoing Australian Open, the year’s first tennis Grand Slam event. The match he described?

Ana Ivanovic vs. Daniela Hantuchova. I quickly devoured what was left on my lunch plate and raced to the TV screen. The score: 6-0, 2-0. In favor of Daniela. I couldn’t believe it. Here I was, predicting an Ana victory, possibly in two easy sets, and here she was losing… the first eight games! Unbelievable. I sat down to watch. Ana won a game, then another, and then one more. The next thing I knew, she won six of the next seven games to snatch the second set, 6-3. We’re in for a fight. In the third set, the match see-sawed until Ana finally broke Daniela at 4-all and went on to win, 6-4.

Muhammad Ali Reborn

If you turned on your cable TV set and watched Star Sports from 5 to 7 p.m. last night, you’d be in disbelief, puzzled, scratching your head. Rafael Nadal? The world no.2? The man who hasn’t lost a set at the Oz Open? He’s being clobbered in straight sets by an unknown, unseeded, unheard-of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga?

At the Oz Open, who’s the fairest one of them all?

Among all the women on earth who grip tennis rackets, swing at yellow balls, glide across the rectangle court, serve, volley, smash lobs, and sprint for drop shots, three ladies I find most attractive…..

First, and no need to introduce her, is Ms. MS. You know who she is. She stands 6-foot-2, hails from Russia but calls Florida home now, and, at the 2008 Australian Open, she just defeated the world no.1 Justine Henin in a lopsided score, 6-4, 6-0.

Who else but Maria Sharapova! And who doesn’t find her attractive? Or sexy? My favorite dentist, Dr. Nonito Narvasa, long-married to his beautiful spouse Jency, has also long-nurtured a crush on Maria. Mike Limpag? My sports editor on these pages? Two weeks ago after I wrote about Roger Federer, Mike berated me with the text message, “When are you going to write about my ex-girlfriend, Maria?” Wow. It seems everybody loves Maria. And that, I have to admit, does not exclude me.

Daniela…. Maria…. Ana…. PHOTOS

Daniela Hantuchova

S. W.

NO need to tell you if she won or lost… this photo (by Julian Abram Wainwright/EPA) says it all

Sinulog Half-Marathon….. A Runaway Success

How do you convince 1,000 people to converge at 6 a.m. on a Saturday to join a running event?

You ask Meyrick and Perl Jacalan to promote the event. The owners of one of Cebu’s top advertising agencies—ASAP (Advertising Services and Promotions)—this couple helped organize last weekend’s highly-successful Mizuno-Shell Sinulog Half-Marathon. Energetic, young and overflowing with creative ideas, Meyrick and Perl are even more than that: they’re passionate and possess an attitude that says, “Go-Go-Go!” And because of the two, the Sinulog Run convinced big-name companies to sponsor: Mizuno, Shell, Mazda, Burlington, Alcordo Advertising, Holiday Gym and Spa, Cebu Globenet Realty, Activa Kontra Arthritis, and Infinity Colors (among others).

How do you divide the work?

You don’t do it by yourself—but function as a team. Take the president of the Cebu Executive Runners Club (CERC), Jesse Taborada. It wasn’t Jesse alone who spent late nights working to make the Sinulog race a success—but his whole family. I saw for myself how Jesse enlisted that “team-work” spirit with the help of his wife Bebie and their five children: Geigy, Kitty, JJ, Jason and Jon. So when the participants picked up their singlets at Jesse’s family-owned Sug-Angan Restaurant, they were assisted by his six family members who all volunteered. It’s called Family Power.