PIC Tennis Championships kicks off today

Sixteen matches will be played at the start of the hostilities in the 9th Annual PIC Tennis Championships today at the Pacific Islands Club hard courts.

The first three games in the first weekend of the two-weekend competition will feature players in the men’s 3.0 singles and boys’ 14-and-under division.

Jorge Bartolata will duel Vener Urena in the men’s 3.0 singles at 3:30pm on Court 2, while top seed Rafael Jones will test the mettle of Amani Sakano in the opening round in the boys’ 14-and-under on Court 3. In another 14-and-under singles match, Dylan Ackerman will collide with Angelo Jones on Court 4.

Four other boys’ 14-and-under matches will be played today. Kennedy Izuka will take on Jun Myong, Daniel Park will meet John Cano, Lucas Nutting will battle Andrew Johnson, and Joel Jang will challenge Chris Cajigan. The boys’ 14-and-under division has a 16-player draw.

In the men’s 3.0, 12 players are entered and two more matches are set for today with Gabriel Colombo facing Nathan Nutting and Woo Hyun Kim squaring off with Ricardo Presinede.

In tonight’s opening games in the men’s 4.0 singles, which drew 12 players, Mike Jang will meet Chung Sayon, S.H. Ham will duel Bong Gamab, Toshi Beltau will collide with Richard Asuncion, and Muna Gurung will play Dong Min Lee.

This year’s PIC netfest will also have competitions in the men’s and women’s open singles, women’s 4.0, girls’ 14-and-under, and boys and girls’ 10-and-under.

Nicolas Son and W.S. Chang will play in the first game in the men’s open singles today with the winner meeting Ji Hoon Heo in the semifinals. The other semis pair in the men’s open singles will feature Jeff Race and Kirk Schuler.

The women’s open has only three players in Thea Minor, Jodel Fernandez, and Lila Mailman.

Two games are set for the boys’ 10-and-under tonight with J.P. Tamayo battling Steven Goodwin and Michael Ken challenging Kui Lee. Six more players are competing in the boys’ 10-and-under division, namely Carl Dela Cruz, Michael Jones, Moris Villanueva, Jun Myong, Clayton Izuka, and Colin Ramsey.

The girls’ 10-and-under division has 10 players in Tiffany Madlangbayan, Mimi Sakano, Ami Tsukagosh, Anna Calvert, Tammy Ackerman, Sakura Imaya, Gabrielle Race, Carol Lee, Malika Miyawaki, and Emily Jones. Matches will start tomorrow with Madlangbayan meeting Sakano and Tsukagoshi playing Calvert.

Only five players will be battling for the girls’ 14-and-under division title. They are top seed Melody Johnson, Jean Bracken, Neghar Rastguiy, Amy Arenovski, and Adele Hudkins.

All singles matches are expected to finish on Monday. Doubles matches will be played next weekend, from April 3 to 5, also at the PIC hard courts.