PARIS. – Aira Villegas and Nesthy Petecio are to set foot in the hallowed grounds of Roland Garros to pursue their dreams and help sustain the searing drive of Team Philippines for greater success in the Olympic Games here.
Boxing action moves from the North Paris Arena to the iconic Paris sports complex for the medal rounds starting Tuesday.
Villegas will be the first to be ushered in and have her warmups in the lockers that Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer have called their own.
The Tacloban pug fights Turkish Buse Naz Cakiroglu in the semis of the 50kg class at around 10 p.m. here Tuesday (early Wednesday morning in Manila), with the winner advancing to the gold-medal fight either opposite Wu Yu of China or Kazakh Nazym Kyzaibay.
Petecio takes her turn for a Garros gig Wednesday night, duking it out with Poland’s Julia Szeremeta in a 57kg semis showdown.
In the other side of the semis are top seed Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu Ting and Turkey’s Esra Yildiz Kahraman.
