Lopez, Rastguiy enter q’finals

The CNMI’s Mikayla Lopez continued to put on a strong showing in the 2015 IT&E Northern Marianas Junior Championships, while Negahr Rastguiy fought back as doubles competition in the Junior ITF event kicked off yesterday.

The CNMI’s Mikayla Lopez, right, approaches the net, while teammate Ayana Rengiil of Palau stays close during the second set of their doubles game against Hong Kong’s Yuen Liu and Sabrina Woll in the 2015 IT&E Northern Marianas Junior yesterday at the Pacific Islands Club hard courts.
(Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Lopez, who stunned her seeded opponent in opening round of the singles event last Monday, also won her first match in the doubles, teaming up with Palau’s Ayana Rengiil in surviving the third-ranked Hong Kong pair of Yuen Liu and Sabrina Woll, 4-6, 6-1, 10-8, at the Pacific Islands Club hard courts.

Holding to a shaky 9-8 lead in the super tiebreaker, Lopez served for the match point, but was called for a service error in her first try. She made the adjustment in the second with the ball going in and received and returned by Woll. Rengiil then approached the net and went for a backhand slice with the ball dropping just a few inches inside the left service box and Liu coming in too late for a return.

“We talked before I served for the match point and our strategy was for Ayana to approach the net. It worked,” said Lopez, as she and Rengiil also got several points using the same tactic in the second set to force the super tiebreaker and bounce back from the opening set loss.

With the thrilling victory, Lopez and Rengiil marched into the quarterfinals against Japan’s Funa Kozaki and Yuki Naito, who swept the pair of compatriot Chisato Hayakawa and Singapore’s Maxine Ng, 6-3, 6-4

Also barging into the quarterfinals were Rastguiy and teammate Nicole Tan of Singapore. The duo needed a super tiebreaker, too, to soldier on and thwart Japan’s Yuna Fukumuro and Haruka Hoshino, 6-3, 4-6, 10-3, in one of the upper bracket matches. Nicole Tan and Rastguiy will be paired in the quarterfinals against another Japanese tandem in Sakura Hondo and Ayano Shimizu, who eliminated the CNMI’s Tania Tan and Isabel Heras after cruising to a 6-0, 6-0 victory yesterday at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.

The other quarterfinal pairing at the top half of the draw will have Hong Kong’s Kwan Wu Man and Japan’s Makoto Ohara battling the Japanese team of Ayu Sugiyawa and Riho Yuasa. Man and Ohara eked out a 6-4, 6-4 upset win over the No. 1 seeded pair of Maria Dominique Ong of the Philippines and the CNMI’s Tammy Ackerman, while Sugiyama and Yuasa also swept the host’s Julia Ishikawa and Malika Miyawaki, 6-0, 6-1.

In the lower half of the draw, No. 2-ranked Nagomi Higashitani and Ayumi Hirata of Japan topped the CNMI’s Carol Lee and American Casey Cummings, 6-1, 6-2, to set a quarterfinals date against compatriot Akari Miyazaki and Yumi Takemura. Miyazaki and Takemura made it to the next round after ousting the CNMI’s Mimi Sakano and Ami Tsukagoshi, 6-0, 6-2.

Meanwhile, in the boys doubles, the Commonwealth’s bets bowed out of competition anew, while three of the Top 4 seeds marched on.

The host’s Tommy Choi and Luther Lizama absorbed a 0-6, 1-6, loss to Japan’s Yusuke Miyai and Rintaro Oka, who advanced to the quarterfinals against top-ranked Jesse Delaney of Australia and Hong Kong’s Ching Lam, a 6-1, 7-6 (6) winner over South Korea’s Justin Cheun and American Jack Pulliam.

Robbie Schorr and Ken Song were also eliminated at the top half of the bracket after losing to the fourth-ranked Japanese pair of Tomohiro Masabayashi and Kento Yamada, 6-0, 6-0. The Japan bets’ quarterfinals foes are Chinese-Taipei’s Yu-Hsiang Su and Hong Kong’s Zheng Zhang, who edged Hong Kong’s Alester Magalit and the Philippines’ Jerome Romualdez, 4-6, 6-1, 10-6.

Completing the boys doubles quarterfinals cast were Japan’s Rimpei Kawakami and Kazuki Shimizu, Germany’s Marvin Bockers and Singapore’s Enzo Chua, Singapore’s Shaheed Alam and Sherwin Foo, and Japan’s James Kent Trotter and Shinji Hazawa. Trotter and Hazawa booted out the CNMI’s Colin Ramsey and Singapore’s Gabriel Chum, 6-1, 6-1.

In other results, four Japanese players notched early quarterfinals berths in the girls singles event, while four others completed the second round qualifiers in the boys singles.

Top-ranked Hirata, Naito, Funa Kozaki, and Hoshino advanced to the Round of 8 after beating their respective foes. Hirata downed Fukumuro, 6-0, 6-0; Naito swept Man, 6-3, 6-0; Fozaki thwarted Sugiyama, 6-3, 6-2; and Hoshino outclassed Liu, 6-2, 7-5.

In the boys singles, Shimizu advanced to the second round after winning over Bockers, 6-7 (2), 6-2, 6-0) and were joined in the Round of 16 by Oka, Kawakami, and Miyai. Oka prevailed against Hong Kong’s Fabien Calloud, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4; Kawakami defeated Cheun, 6-1, 6-1; and Miyai slipped past Zhang, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Second round and quarterfinal matches in the boys and girls singles and doubles will be played today.