Tan Holdings Tennis Classic draws 68 entries in Week 1

 Week 1 of the 3rd Annual Tan Holdings Tennis Classic kicked off yesterday and lured 68 entries.

The men’s singles open, 3.0., and 4.0 drew the most participants with nine each, the men’s 40-and-above had eight, the mixed doubles 3.0 attracted six, the mixed doubles 4.0. and women’s 40-and-above 3.0, and 4.0 singles featured five entries apiece, the mixed doubles 40-and-above enticed four, and women’s 2.0 singles included three players.

Todd Montgomery, the 2010 Micronesian Games singles gold medalist, is seeded first in the men’s open singles and will play newcomer Jeff Belzer tonight at 6:30pm at the American Memorial Park Tennis court. CNMI coach Jeff Race is on the lower half of the bracket and is ranked second. He also drew a bye in the first round and will play the winner of the Bong Gamab-Amami Sakano match tonight. Gamab and Sakano dueled in the opening of the competition last night.

Also on the men’s singles open field are Daniel Park and Bobby Cruz, who also played their first game last night at AMP and Rafael Jones and Thea Minor, who will collide tomorrow also, at AMP.

Guam’s Peter Lai is the No. 1 seed in the men’s 4.0 singles and will be joined in the field by Paul Jang, Jake Lee, Angelo Jones, Carl dela Cruz, Clay McCullough-Stearns, Kentaro Imaya, John Jang, and second seed Buddy Garote. Lee and Jones were scheduled to start action in the men’s 4.0 singles as they squared off last night at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan court.

The men’s 40-and-above singles will also feature the Lais-Peter, Sam, and David, who are ranked second to fourth in their division. Raj Rai is the top seed in the men’s 3.0 singles, which will also have Chang Wang Hang, Gary Ramsey, George Lai, Gabriel Colombo, and Bob Webb.

Junior player Dyan Ackerman leads the men’s 3.0 singles field and will be battling the championship against the second-seeded Moris Villanueva, Luther Lizama, Jamie Hagos, Michael Jones, Kazu Shintani, Michael Ren, and Justin Poon.

In the women’s 4.0 singles, Dylan’s sister, Tammy, will be the player to beat. Joining her in the field are fellow junior player Carol Lee and Emily Jones, Aki Shintani, and Nina Engelhardt.

The women’s 3. 0 singles will also have three junior players in Adele Hudkins, Isabel Heras, and Alina Ishikawa. Completing the list are Sally Masbate and Vickie Izuka.

The women’s 40-and-above singles will be a five-player battle among Lydia Tan, Migu Goodman, Sakiko Eda, Sally Lee, and Cleofe Santos.

For the mixed doubles, Izuka will team up with Norman Tsang in competing in the 3.0 division against the pairs of Paul Jang and July Kim, Aki and Kazu Shintani, Emily Jones and Michael Ren, Mayling Colombo and Kentaro Imaya, and Nagoo Chieko and Ryan Cho.

In the mixed doubles 40-and-above, the field include Tan and David Lai, Jorge Olanda and Lyn Leung, George Lai and Sally Lee, and Goodman and Sam Lai.

In the mixed doubles 4.0, the father and daughter tandem of Boyet and Theecel Minor are seeded first against the duos of Merle Hudkins and Sergei Stukov, Engelhardt and Phil Klensin, Jodel Fernandez and Jake Lee, and Mikayla Lopez and dela Cruz.

Preliminary games will be played from Thursday to Saturday and title matches are expected to be completed this Sunday.

This year’s Tan Holdings Classic is supported by TakeCare, Quality Distributors, Mobil, and Tan Siu Lin Foundation.