Tournament organizer enforced its sandbagging rule. Salamat! More of this please 🙏
An eyewitness account of yesterday's mixed doubles sandbagging call.
I'm only posting because the pair involved has already shared their side. Here’s to help share a full picture as someone who was there.
This was in yesterday's mixed doubles bracket.
The Marasigan–Aquino pairing (let’s not give their full names, unless they push further) won their first two games. What drew a lot of attention was the male player's level who was clearly far more advanced than this bracket is meant for. His serve, net play, and baseline game were at least one to two levels above everyone else on court.
You could replay the matches a hundred times and none of the other teams would have won.
For context, the organizers have a no-sandbagging rule, and it was published ahead of the tournament: any player identified as a sandbagger has all their matches counted as losses.
The organizers noticed during the 1st game, watched the second closely, and then spoke with the pair and all involved. That's the right approach since a careful review should look at more than one game before judging someone's level.
The other players in the bracket and the audience can attest to what they saw too.
Also both these matches were recorded by the pair, so the footage there. Feel free to post it. I'm confident anyone who watches would see the contrast.
Salamat, Alley Avenue. It is very rare for tournament organizers in Manila to make room for these conversations, let alone actually enforce sandbagging rules.
It's genuinely appreciated. 🫶