Kapampangan tennis champ Marissa Sanchez dies at 69
ANGELES CITY—Maria Socorro “Marissa” Sanchez, a 1970s tennis champion who helped pave the way for Filipino women in the sport, died of a heart-related illness on Sunday, her nephew, Foreign Assistant Secretary Elmer Cato confirmed.
A wake is being held for Sanchez, 69, at the Holy Mary Memorial in Angeles City, starting at 4 p.m. on Monday.
In an Inquirer interview in 2017, Sanchez cited her victory in the National Tennis Open at the Philippine Tennis Association Open in 1975, triumphing also in the 1976 Philippine Open.
She played in the Fed Cup, the women’s equivalent of the Davis Cup. When the Philippines first forayed into the Southeast Asian Games in 1977, she won the silver in the women’s singles.
Asian Games bet
Sanchez represented the Philippines in the Asian Games, battling ace players from Japan, South Korea and China. Sanchez emerged as the first female champion of the Philippine Columbian Association Open.
“Long before Alex Eala, there was Marissa Dizon Sanchez who brought prestige and honor to the Philippines and the Filipino people as one of the top tennis sensations of her era,” wrote Cato on social media, announcing her death.
He added: “The pride of the Sanchez-Ayuyao clan of Angeles City and Magalang, Pampanga, Auntie Marissa rose to fame at a time when tennis was a male-dominated sport in the Philippines.”
After winning over 100 medals and trophies in the male-dominated sport, Sanchez bowed out of competitive tennis in the 1990s, training children
She often held her tennis clinics at the Angeles City Tennis Club (ACTC) as she advocated for local governments to implement tennis programs.
At 12, she learned tennis by tagging along with her father, Modesto, a tennis enthusiast, when the ACTC was still in Angeles’ Barangay Pulong Bulo.
Among the men who frequently played there were banker writer Renato “Katoks” Tayag Sr. and tennis legend Felicisimo “Totoy” Ampon.
“We have so much talent in tennis. What we need is total support from the government,” Sanchez told the Inquirer in the 2017 interview.
