Philippine Sports All-Stars: 49. Partner-Perfect: PATRICIA B. INGAYO, All-Around Tennis Ace (active mid 1950s-1971)

The versatile tennis player PATRICIA Bengson INGAYO (b. 14 Apr. 1937/d.11 Jul. 2013) possessed such depth of skills that allowed her to play and win medals in Singles, Women’s Doubles, Mixed Doubles and Team events. At the peak of her performance, she medalled consecutively in 3 Asian Games campaigns in all tennis events, and figured in the finals of several editions of the Philippines Open International Championships, founded in 1918 (later known as PHILTA International Championships).

Patricia Yngayo was born in Ermita, Manila, the daughter of Lope Yngayo, and his wife, Salud G. Bengson who were married on 9 Jan 1935. Originally from Cebu, Yngayo went to the University of the Philippines and played school tennis. He became a national and Metropolitan tennis champion who played in the Davis Cup with Guillermo Aragon against Austria in May 1928. He later became a coach and trained the Philippine Davis Cup team. Lope Yngayo was certainly an influence for Patricia to take up the sports of tennis, and her early competitions revolved around tennis tournaments organized by community clubs.

1958 was the turning point of Yngayo’s tennis career when, in the finals of the Philippine International Open Tennis Championships, she barged into the Women’s Single’s event and placed second to the great Desideria Ampon—who would be, for the next years, her one and only greatest rival. In the next years --1959, 1960, 1966, 1969, 1971—Ampon would relegate Yngayo to a runner-up finish, except in 1970 where American Ceci Martinez beat her in the finals. Yngayo never won the top women’s singles title in this Manila-based tournament.

Yngayo and Ampon were named as the Philippine delegates to the women’s tennis competition at the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo, Japan. She and Ampon made it to the Women’s Doubles---and bagged the Silver, won by Japan’s Sachiko Kamo and Reiko Miyagi. In the Mixed Doubles, she and partner Miguel Dungo reached the finals and claimed the Silver medal. It was in the Doubles Events that Yngayo was most successful in the Asian Games, winning medals in succession in Tokyo, Jakarta and Bangkok through her perfect partnership with Desi Ampon.

In the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta, Yngayo finally annexed an individual medal to her collection, winning Bronze in the Women’s Singles, shared with compatriot Desi Ampon, after 2 Japanese—Akiko Fukui and Reiko Miyagi—who won Gold and Silver, respectively. The Yngayo-Ampon tandem were also triumphant in the Women’s Doubles and the Team Event, taking home the Bronze.

Her final 1966 Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand yielded 2 precious Silvers in the Women’s Doubles (with Desi Ampon) and Mixed Doubles (with Federico Deyro), and Bronze in the Women’s Team. In all, Yngayo—in tandem with Ampon, Dungo and Deyro—amassed 8 medals—4 Silvers and 3 Bronzes in the quadrennial games. Add to that her individual Bronze in the Women’s Singles—and that makes her the most productive Filipina tennis player in the Asian Games to date.

The bemedalled Patricia Yngayo may not have won an individual tennis title or an individual tennis gold in her lifetime, but as they say, victory is not just about coming home with Golds. It is also about coming back stronger, rebounding with resilience in the relentless pursuit of excellence. In her competitive years, Yngayo demonstrated all that, and more—proving her status as one of the few all-around women tennisters of the country. The accomplished tennis ace passed away at age 76, after a lingering illness.