Vekic, Osorio dispute Philippine Women's Open singles crown

MANILA, Philippines — Crowd favorite Donna Vekic of Croatia and Colombia's Camila Osorio posted contrasting wins yesterday, setting up a title showdown for the Philippine Women's Open crown at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center on Saturday.

With the hometown crowd rallying behind her at Center Court, Vekic, seeded No. 5, dismantled and ended the giant-killing run of Russian Tatiana Prozorova 6-2, 6-4 in one hour and 16 minutes of action for a place in the finals.

Quick to follow suit was fifth-seeded Osorio, who, upsetting the form chart anew, followed up her ouster of local darling Alex Eala 4-6, 4-6 last Thursday night in overpowering Argentine No. 3 seed Solana Sierra 6-0, 6-1 in just 46 minutes.

Vekic and Osorio will thus dispute the singles championship of the maiden WTA 125 competition in the country supported by the Philippine Sports Commission and organized by the Philippine Tennis Association.

Currently ranked No. 72 in the world, the Croatian, who met her opponent once before and beat her in the 2022 Midwestern Southern Openqualifiers, winning 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, acknowledged that Osorio (No. 84) would be a "tough match.

"She has been obviously been playing pretty well. Both of us have a good chance (of winning). So I will have to come up with a good game plan with my coach."

She disclosed what she needed to do in winning her fifth WTA title since ruling the Monterrey Open, a WTA 250 meet, in Monterrey, Mexico in 2023.

"I need another good performance and a little bit of luck, to focus on recovery tonight and be ready for tomorrow," the Paris Olympic Games silver medalist said, adding that "my serve has been very good the whole week.

"My serve has been very good the whole week, giving me a lot of points and making my life easier and getting me out of some tough situations."

Displaying resilience Hong Kong's Eudice Chong and Taiwanese Liang En-Shou rallied from a 0-1 deficit to stun the top seeded American pair of Quinn Gleason and Sabrina Santamaria 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 10-6 in securing the women's doubles championship.

Showing greater cohesion and teamwork as the match wore on, Chong and Liang captured the title in nearly two hours of the meet serving as the initial undertaking of the National Sports Tourism-Interagency Committee under the leadership of PSC Chairperson Patrick "Pato" Gregorio.

Now that Filipinos had adopted her like one of their own, the Croatian was banking on their support, saying: "Against Camila, I hope they will be cheering for me tomorrow."

Osorio, whose goals were modest entering the tournament, said that reaching he finals of the netfest "was amazing. It was a great match. I played my best today and I am really excited to for what's coming tomorrow."

But having played her opponent in the past, the Colombian, who dreamt of becomig a pro tennis player at the age of six, was likewise aware that the championship match would not be a cakewalk.

"It is going to be for sure a challenge. l know that she (Vekic) is a very aggressive player.She likes to be on top of the ball every single time so I have to be ready for that and try to be physical with her," noted Osorio.

Unlike her initial encounter, however, the Colombian, who sported a jersey of the Filipinas, the national women's football team, said that she was more prepared for her second clash with Vekic.

"That was only my second year on the WTA tour. I was younger and I have more match experience now. I am playing great, in the past few days I have been playing well," she pointed out.

Ask how primed she was for the title contest, Osorio replied: "I haven't played too many matches so I will be very happy. If you put it at 8 a.m. I will be ready." TMT

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