The Philippine Comeback Machine

Saul Shrom prepares to serve to Sean Lacap in Manitoba
Open men's quarter finals action at Kildonan Tennis Club.

Lacap erases huge third set deficit to post win

By Geoff Kirbyson

When Yogi Berra said, “it ain’t over til it’s over,” he probably wasn’t talking about tennis.

But the New York Yankees legend’s famous line about not giving up until the absolute end was fitting for Sean LaCap’s win over Saul Shrom at the Manitoba Open at the Kildonan Tennis Club Thursday night.

The fourth seeded Lacap found himself down 5-1 in the third set to the sixth seed before battling back to take it to a tie-break, only to go down 4-0 and then down two match points at 6-4.

He saved both and eventually took the tie-break 9-7 in a match that lasted nearly three hours and 15 minutes.

Lacap will now play No. 2 seed Alex Lesiuk, who took out LaCap’s younger brother, Chad, 6-4, 7-6, (7-2) in one men’s singles semi-final on Friday while top seed Kevin Kylar will play No. 3 Evan Mancer.

Kylar beat Kento Tanaka-Tamaki, the No. 7 seed, who plays at Pepperdine University, 6-3, 6-3, while Mancer ousted Muzeen Ismath, 7-6, (7-3), 6-4.

Shrom was involved in another barn burner on the doubles court when he and Lesiuk, the event’s top seeds, beat Daniel Fraser and Shane Nicholls, 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 in one quarter-final.

Sean and Chad Lacap, the No. 2 seeds, defeated Ian Filoteo and Joey Glavine, 6-1, 6-3 in another.

Tanaka-Tamaki and Cole Lacap registered one of two upsets on the day, beating Ismath and Geoff Kirbyson, the third seeds and the 2011 champions, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

Stephen Dubienski and Mike Lodywyks pulled off the second, beating the fourth-ranked pair of Trev Borland and Sean Grassie, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.

On the women’s side, it’s going to be an all-Waschuk singles final as both Evann and Kylie won their semi-finals Thursday night.

Top-seeded Evann defeated Samantha Lee, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, while No. 2 Kylie took down Jennifer Wang, 6-3, 6-2.

They will play Friday at 5:45 p.m.

See also...
> Lacap's make Manitoba Open a family affair
> Marathon match puts Ismath into Manitoba Open Quarterfinals

Get Manitoba Open draw updates at tennismanitoba.com