Lopez rallies to boost singles bid

CNMI junior player Mikayla Lopez fought back from an opening set loss to make it to the quarterfinals of the singles event of the 2015 IT&E Northern Marianas Junior Championships.

Mikayla Lopez makes a baseline return during her and Ayana Rengiil’s doubles game against Hong Kong’s Yuen Liu and Sabrina Woll in the 2015 IT&E Northern Marianas Junior Championships last Tuesday at the Pacific Islands Club tennis courts. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Lopez bowed to Japan’s Makoto Ohara, 2-6, in the first set of their second round game yesterday at the Pacific Island Club hard courts, but regained her bearings quickly and swept the last two to steal the victory and arrange a Round of 8 duel today against the second-ranked Maria Dominique Ong of the Philippines at the bottom half of the draw.

Ong had an easier second round assignment, cruising past Japan’s Risako Umekuni, 6-1, 6-0. Joining Ong and Lopez in the quarterfinals were Japan’s Ayumi Hirata, Yuki Naito, Funa Kozaki, Haruka Hoshino, Sakura Hondo, and Ayano Shimizo.

Shimizo and Hondo took the two other quarterfinals tickets in the lower half of the draw after prevailing against compatriots Nagomo Higashitani, 6-3, 6-3, and Chisato Hayakawa, 6-1, 6-4, respectively. At the top half of the draw, the No. 1 seeded Hirata blanked Yuna Fukumuro, 6-0, 6-0 to set up a quarterfinals meeting against Naito, a 6-3, 6-0 winner against Hong Kong’s Kwan Wun Man. The other quarterfinal pairing will have Fozaki battling Hoshino after they eliminated Ayu Sugiyama, 6-3, 6-2, and Hong Kong’s Yuen Liu, 6-2, 7-5.

Meanwhile, Lopez’s second round victory in the singles event made her the lone CNMI player in contention for the Junior ITF event, as Negahr Rastguiy and doubles partner Nicole Tan of Hong fell to Japan’s Sakura Hondo and Shimizu, 3-6, 2-6, yesterday afternoon.

Lopez also faltered in her semis bid in the doubles contest, as she and Palau’s Ayana Rengiil bowed to another Japanese pair in Kozaki and Naito, 1-6, 1-6. Up next for Kozaki and Naito are Higashitani and Hirata, who eliminated Akari Miyazaki and Yumi Takemura, 6-1, 6-1, to advance to the semifinals. The other Final Four showdown will have Hondo and Shimizu facing Man and Ohara, who got a free pass to the semis after a walkover win against Ayu Sugiyama and Riho Yuasa.

BOYS DIVISION
Three seeded pairs made it to the semifinals of the boys doubles event.

Australia’s Jesse Delaney and Hong Kong’s Ching Lam, the top-ranked duo in the main draw, swept Japan’s Yusuke Miyai and Rintaro Oka to force a semis tiff against No. 4 seeds Tomohiro Masabayashi and Kenyo Yamada. The fourth-ranked Yamada and Masabayashi barged into the semis after ousting Chinese-Taipei’s Yu-Hsiang Su and Zheng Zhang, 6-3, 6-3, in the other quarterfinals match at the top half of the bracket.

At the lower half, the second-ranked pair of Singapore’s Shaheed Alam and Sherwin Foo beat Japan’s Shinji Hazawa and James Kent Trottter, 1-6, 6-2, 10-6, to set a semis encounter with Japan’s Rimpei Kawakami and Kazuku Shimizu, who knocked out Singapore’s Enzo Chua and Germany’s Marvin Bockers, 6-3, 6-1.

In the singles event, the top-ranked Lam got the boot from the unseeded Shimizu, who eked out a 4-6, 6-0, 7-6 (4) victory in their second round match.

Joining Shimizu in the quarterfinals were Trotter, Masabayashi, Alam, Kawakami, Delaney, South Korea’s Yohan Sung, and Japan’s Shinji Hazawa.

CONSOLATION DRAW
The CNMI’s Carol Lee topped the consolation draw in the girls singles. She drew a bye in the first round and defeated Julia Ishikawa, 4-0, 4-0 and Isabel Heras, 4-0, 4-2, to rule the all-CNMI consolation bracket. Ishikawa advanced after a 4-2, 6-5 (8) win over Tania Tan, while Heras prevailed against Ami Tsukagoshi, 5-2, 4-0 and Malika Miyawaki, 4-1, 4-2. Miyawaki won over Mimi Sakano, 4-2, 5-3.

In the boys division, Hong Kong’s Fabien Calloud was the winner after downing the CNMI’s Luther Lizama, 4-2, 4-0, and Hong Kong’s Denton Ho, 5-4 (3), 3-5, 10-8.