Thea, Christian top U18 doubles

 As expected, top junior netters Thea Minor and Christian Miller won the boys 18-and-under doubles of the 2012 CNMI Junior Tennis Championships last Sunday at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.

Minor and Miller completed a sweep of the age group by winning all four their matches in the round-robin competition.

The duo first dispatched Seiya Eda and Amami Sakano and Carl Dela Cruz and Cris Cajigan during the tournament’s first week of competition.

Minor and Miller beat Eda and Sakano in straight sets, 6-1, 6-0. They did get a challenge from eventual boys 15-and-under singles champion Cajigan and his runner-up Dela Cruz in the second round, but prevailed nonetheless in a score of 7-5, 6-0.

The top seeds didn’t miss a beat when play resumed last weekend, as they defeated Dylan Ackerman and Colin Ramsey, 6-1, 6-1, before making it 4-for-4 with a hard-earned 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 victory against Rafael Jones and Jake Lee.

Eda and Sakano finished second in the division with a 3-1 mark, followed by Jones and Lee (2-2), Cajigan and Dela Cruz (1-3), and Ackerman and Ramsey (0-4).

In the boys 13-and-under doubles, Steven Goodwin and Michael Ren reigned supreme with also an immaculate 3-0 card.

The duo lost a grand total of one point en route to the championship. They won via walkover against Jeremy Seo and Eugene Park in their first game.

They did have to sweat it out in their second game, a 6-0, 6-0 skunking of Rintaro Miyawaki and Kevin Kim before achieving perfection with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Michael Jones and Tony Atalig.

Haruyo Eda and Vincent Tudela finished second in the age group at 2-1, followed by Jones and Atalig (1-2), while Seo and Park and Miyawaki and Kim ended up tied in last place (0-3).

Neghar Rastguiy and Emily Jones, meanwhile, topped the girls 13-and-under doubles after triumphing against Tania Tan and Mimi Sakano in the finals, 6-3, 6-2.

The champion duo advanced to the championship round after a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Lisa and Catherine Atalig.

Before that, Jones and Rastguiy made quick work of Grace Choi and Hana Nelson. 6-1, 6-0.

Tan and Sakano, for their part, beat Ami Tsukagoshi and Malika Miyawaki, 6-2, 6-1, to advance to the finals.

The 2012 CNMI Junior Tennis Championships was organized by the Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association with Angelo Jones serving as tournament director.

The top finishers in the season-ending youth tourney will get ranking points. These points will be compiled by NMITA and will help determine the CNMI’s representatives to the 2012 North Pacific Qualifying Tournament in Guam in June.

The Top 5 players in the ranking list in the U15 and U12 age groups and Top 4 in the U18 will earn slots on the team.