The national soft tennis team will parade new pairs when it competes in the 9th Mungyeong Asian Soft Tennis Championships in South Korea from 13 to 23 September.

National team veteran Bien Zoleta said they tried shuffling their players during the Poland Open last 6 July that gave them a feel of the competition against tougher opponents.

Composed of Zoleta, Princess Catindig, Christy Sañosa, Bea Ebriega, Shyryn Salazar, Airies Nuguit, Patrick Mendoza, Adjuthor Moralde II, Sherwin Nuguit and Jason Caminting, the Filipinos emerged with one gold, four silver and three bronze medals in the Polish event that features top netters from Japan, India, South Korea, Poland, Czech Republic, Sweden and Slovakia.

“In Poland, there’s a mix of pro and national team players in the other teams. So, we focused on partnerships,” Zoleta, a four-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, said.

“I think the tournament was good for the players to break in. The new players are not yet complete but joining the tournament was good for us. We were able to experiment with our pairings and see those who are good and those who can be used as back-up.”

Before seeing action in the Asian Championships, the Filipinos will set up a training camp in Sunchang, South Korea from 24 August to 12 September.

Zoleta said the training camp will help them finalize the pairings that will be used for the Asian Championships.

“When it comes to training camp next month, we’ll be a complete team. That’s where we will choose the final line-up for the Asian Championships,” Zoleta said.

National coach Michael Enriquez said more than the physical, he wants his wards to be mentally strong when they compete in Korea.

“It’s more of a good mindset while getting closer and closer to the Asian Championships. We won’t let fitness go to waste. We just need to train a little bit more for the Asian Championships,” Enriquez said.