Rondina-Pons finish 5th in Budapest Futures; other PH pairs exit early

Juan Carlo Mercado

SiPons — the tandem of Sisi Rondina and Bernadeth Pons capped their Beach Pro Tour Futures campaign with a fifth-place finish, while the rest of the Philippine contingent endured early exits in the men’s and women’s beach volleyball tournament held September 4-7 in Hungary.

Rondina and Pons bowed out after a hard-fought 21-13, 23-21, 15-12 loss to the Czech duo of Veronika Kleiblova and Andrea Lorenzova. They scored a gritty comeback of their own, overcoming Slovenia’s Tajda Lovsin and Ziva Javornik, 16-21, 21-15, 15-9, to secure their place in the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, Sunny Villapando and Dij Rodriguez faltered in their main draw matches.

They dropped a three-setter to Slovenia, 16-21, 21-17, 12-15, before falling to Lovsin and Javornik again, 15-21, 14-21, later that day.

On the men’s side, Rancel Varga and Ronniel Rosales suffered back-to-back sweeps, losing to Turkey’s Sacit Kurt and Tuna Imdat, 15-21, 20-22, on September 6, after a 22-24, 9-21 defeat to the Netherlands’ Tom Sonneville and Quinten Groenewold.

Ran Abdilla and James Buytrago met a similar fate, opening with a 15-21, 18-21 loss to the Czech Republic’s Martin Pihera and Martin Melmuka on September 5 before falling to Hungary’s Bence Tari and Ákos Veress, 17-21, 17-21.