MANILA, Philippines – Three teams emerged victorious after the first 2 days of the UAAP Season 73 Badminton tournament over the weekend at the Rizal Memorial Badminton Hall.

Host De La Salle University (DLSU), University of Sto. Tomas (UST) and Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) all went unscathed after the weekend games to force a 3-way logjam on top in the men’s division.

The same thing happened in the ladies division with a 3-corner fight on top among La Salle, University of the East (UE) and Far Eastern University (FEU) as they all went 2-0.

In the men’s side, La Salle clinched easy victories against National University (NU), 4-1, and UE, 5-0. Rival Ateneo also went the same route as it swept past FEU, 5-0, and then held off NU, 4-1.

UST, meanwhile, had an easy outing in Day 1 with a 5-0 sweep of Adamson University (AdU) but went through some anxious moments in Day 2 before pulling off a come-from-behind 3-2 win against NU.

In that exciting tie, both UST and NU split the singles matches before Joper Escueta and Jayson Oba-ob defeated the pair of Salvador Kapunan and RJ Ormilla, 11-21, 21-18, 24-22, to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead.

Nil-Nim and Jason Deimos tied it when they beat the tandem of Peter Gabriel Magnaye and Derrick Chan, 21-17, 21-6, in just 20 minutes.

Kapunan redeemed himself as he beat Oba-ob in the last singles match, 21-13, 21-14, to clinch the win for the Tigers.

UP and FEU split their first two ties, claiming victories at the expense of UE and Adamson, respectively, to share the second spot with 1-1 slates.

NU, Adamson and UE are mired at the cellar with 0-2 records.
In the distaff side, defending champion La Salle did not meet any hurdles in sweeping all their matches against rival Ateneo and UE for a 2-0 card.

FEU yielded only 2 matches, securing 4-1 victories against Adamson and UP. UE went the distance against UST to get a share of the top spot after easily dispatching NU, 5-0, in Day 1.

In its tie against UST, UE banked on Kimverly Gatpolintan to clinch the win after both teams split the first two matches.

Gatpolintan fended off UST’s Rochanie Dedicatoria, 22-21, 21-16, in 35 minutes to give UE a 2-0 card in the double-round robin tournament.

UST dropped to 1-1 and tied with UP while Adamson, Ateneo and NU remained winless in two outings.

Games will resume on Saturday and Sunday in the same venue.
The tournament has adopted a new format this season similar to the one being used in basketball and volleyball wherein all the teams compete for Final 4 slots with the top two teams gaining twice-to-beat advantage in the semis.