Minor, Izukas finalists in Shirley’s Open

CNMI junior tennis players Thea Minor and Kennedy Izuka and the latter’s mother, Vickie, made it into the finals of the singles competition in the 9th Annual Shirley’s Open Tennis Tournament.

Minor joined the women’s 5.0 singles and dueled Alea Dugan in the finals Sunday. The first set of the title match was a neck-and-neck battle with Dugan escaping with a 7-5 victory. Dugan went on to win the title after more than two hours of play, as she notched a 6-4 victory in the second set.

Minor advanced to the finals after outclassing second seed Terea Tapu in the semifinals, 2-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4. The semis game was played on the same day of the finals match, as it rained Saturday, forcing organizers to reset the Minor-Tapu tiff.

The semis game was played for around three hours and ended around 2pm. After two hours, the 13-year-old Minor challenged the 16-year-old Dugan in the title match, which concluded around 6pm. Two hours later, Minor was on a plane back to Saipan.

Another Saipan player—Vivian Lee—joined the women’s 5.0 singles competition, but lost to Dugan in the semifinals, 6-3, 6-4.

Kennedy was entered in the men’s 2.0 singles and defeated Feng Li in the first round, 6-3, 6-0. He then topped fellow Saipan player Chris Park in the second round, 6-1, 4-6, 1-0 (6), to arrange a meeting with Kevin Lai in the third round.

Kennedy downed Lai to move into the semis against Josiah Zimmerman. Kennedy won in the semis and was awarded the runner-up medal, as he could not make it to this weekend’s finals, which was originally set for last weekend but was moved due to rain.

Kennedy’s mother—Vickie—played in the women’s 2.0 singles and also gained finals entry before losing to Camdyn Nadler in the title game, 6-2, 4-6, 4-6.

Vickie won her first round match against Ashley Nadler, 6-1, 6-3, and then walloped Leslie Waldman, 6-1, 6-1, to advance to the finals.

Four other Saipan players joined the singles competitions in the Shirley’s Open.

Nicholas Son whipped Khay Sung in the first round of the men’s 5.0 singles before losing to Lency Tenai in the next round, 4-6, 1-6.

Fr. Ryan Jimenez drew a bye in the first round, but bowed to Jack Chan in the second round, 4-6, 1-6.

Chuck Sayon lost to Tae Kim in the first round of the men’s 4.5 singles, while Lydia Tan also faltered in her first round match in the women’s 4.0 singles, losing to Margaret Terry, 2-6, 2-6.

Shirley’s Open, which is played on various courts in Guam, was set to resume action yesterday.

Guam National Tennis Federation with the support of David Lai of Shirley’s Restaurants in Guam organized the Shirley’s Open. For the record, Tan and Peter Loyola defeated Sam Lai and Katie Lai in the mixed 4.0 division final (not in the open division, as earlier reported). Additionally, Loyola and Khay Sung lost to Torgun Smith and Chris Blalack in the 35-and-above men’s doubles semifinal round.