BIEN Zoleta-Mañalac captured the first-ever Southeast Asian Games gold medal in soft tennis by beating Kawengai Anadeleyda of Indonesia, 4-2, in the final on Saturday at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.
Zoleta-Mañalac was left in tears following the historic gold. Soft tennis was first introduced in the SEA Games in 2011 and wasn't played for a long time before returning this year.
“Para talaga ‘to sa team,” said the 30-year-old Zoleta-Mañalac. “Hindi ako naglaro para sa sarili ko kundi sa team ko at para kay Col. Jeff (Tamayo, president of the national soft tennis federation). Kasi nung pumasok ako ng soft tennis, siya talaga ang todo suporta.”
Zoleta-Mañalac actually lost to Kawengai in the preliminaries, 4-2, but ended up facing each other again after finishing in the top two at the end of the round-robin phase.
Zoleta-Mañalac changed her game plan come the final.
“Nung una kasi, nakipagbalikan ako. Binago ko ‘yung laro ko nung nakita ko na nahirapan ako. Ang ginawa ko, nag-opensa ako at kung saan ‘yung strength at weakness niya, pinush ko ng pinush,” said Zoleta-Mañalac, a bronze medalist at the World Championship.
Zoleta-Mañalac will be going for his second gold medal whn she teams up with sister Bambi Zoleta in the women’s doubles.
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