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Japanese sweep in doubles
Japan’s Tomohiro Masabayashi and Kento Yamada survived an extended finale to take the doubles championship in the 2015 IT&E Northern Marianas Junior Championships last Saturday at the Pacific Islands Club tennis courts.
The Japanese pair as pitted against the Singapore duo of Shaheed Alam and Sherwin Foo and prevailed in the super tiebreaker, 10-8, to rule the 16-team main draw. Masabayashi and Yamada, who were seeded fourth in the doubles contest, cruised past the second-ranked Foo and Alam in the opening set, 6-3, but failed to close out the finals early when the Singaporean pair came back in the second set with an impressive 6-1 victory to send the match to the super tiebreaker.
Japan’s Tomohiro Masabayashi, left, goes up for a smash, while teammate Kento Yamada looks on during their doubles title match against Singapore’s Shaheed Alam and Sherwin Foo last Saturday in the 2015 IT&E Northern Marianas Junior Championships at the Pacific Islands Club tennis courts. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)
The finals was Alam and Foo’s third consecutive match that went the distance. In the semifinals in the lower half of the draw, they topped Rimpei Kawakami and Kazuki Shimizu, 2-6, 6-4 (10-6), to foil an all-Japanese title match. Earlier in the quarterfinals, the Singapore bets also pulled off a 1-6, 6-1 (10-6) triumph against Japan’s Shinsji Hazawa and James Trotter.
Masabayashi and Yamada came from a super tiebreaker victory, too in the semifinals, stunning the top-ranked pair of Jesse Delaney of Australia and China’s Ching Lam, 2-6, 6-4 (10-6).
Meanwhile, the unranked duo of Sakura Hondo and Ayano Shimizu won the all-Japan finals in the girls division. They swept compatriots and fellow unseeded players Funa Kozaki and Yuki Naito, 6-4, 6-4.
The eventual champions took the finals berth at the top half of the draw without a sweat, as they won via walkover against Hong Kong’s Kwan Wun Man and Japan’s Makoto Ohara.
Naito and Kozaki, on the other hand, eliminated the second-ranked team of Nagomi Higashitani and Ayumi Hirata, 7-5, 6-3, at the lower half of the draw to march into the finals. Naito and Kozaki challenged Hondo and Shimizu in the finals just a few hours after the doubles teammates collided in the girls singles semifinals last Saturday.
