Kaga siblings complete domination in regionals

Sisters Conatsu and Coume Kaga capped their mastery of the ITF North Pacific Regional Championships 2015 by winning the doubles championships in the girls U12 division last Saturday at the Rick Ninete Tennis Center in Hagatna, Guam.

Coume Kaga

Conatsu and Coume, who finished 1-2 in the girls U12 singles, added the doubles title to their collection after going undefeated in three games in the round-robin competition. The Kaga siblings bagged back-to-back wins last Thursday against the Federated States of Micronesia’s Paris Panuelo and Anne Skilling, 6-0, 6-0, and Guam’s Kaia Malakooti and FSM’s Chelsea Panuelo, 6-0, 6-1. The sisters then downed fellow CNMI bets Maria Gregoire and Ericka Tuttle last Friday, 6-3, 6-2, to secure the championship, which was Conatsu’s second in a row after she won last year with partner Malika Miyawaki.

Tuttle and Gregoire settled for the runner-up honors as they finished the round-robin contest with a 2-1 record. The eventual runners-up also swept Paris Panuelo and Skilling, 6-1, 6-2, and had similar two-set victory against Malakooti and Chelsea Panuelo, 6-3, 6-1. The FSM pair rounded out the Top 3 after prevailing against Malakooti and Chelsea Panuelo, 6-4, 6-2.

Conatsu Kaga

Meawhile, the CNMI gained two more doubles championships, three runner-up medals, and two third place finishes.

Girls U14 champion Tania Tan teamed up with runner-up Malika in winning the doubles title in their division. Tan and Miyawaki clinched the doubles crown after topping fellow CNMI players Asia Raulerson and Mimi Sakano last Friday, 6-3, 6-3. The victory was Tan and Malika’s third in as many games as they earlier swept FSM’s Isabel Garcia and Tatiana Panuelo, 6-0, 6-0, and Guam’s Alyssa Merletti and Jocelyn Tenai, 6-2, 6-0, last Thursday. Sakano and Raulerson beat the same two pairs to give the CNMI the Top 2 finish in the girls U14 doubles.

In the girls U16, singles champion Isabel Heras and her rival Ami Tsukagoshi joined forces in handing the CNMI Junior National Team its third doubles crown. The Commonwealth duo was also unbeaten in the round-robin play, sealing the championship with a 6-2, 6-3 victory against Guam’s Kanasta Abrams and Tara Usita-Lee last Friday. Heras and Tsukagoshi’s other wins were posted last Thursday and against FSM’s Sunshein Palik and Sinarleen Perez, 6-0, 6-2, and Guam’s Victoria Smith and Nozomi Tamasawa, 6-0, 6-2.

In other results, two CNMI pair made it to the Top 3 in the boys U14 doubles. Vincent Tudela partnered with Steven Goodwin and they finished the round-robin contest with a 4-1 record to place second behind champion Sterkis Abraham and Joab William of FSM. Singles champion Robbie Schorr and runner-up Ken Song were ranked third after earning a 3-2 mark.

In the boys U12 doubles, singles semifinalist Jin Min Woo and Seung Jin Paik finished third after notching a 2-2 record, the same record Sean Lee and Rintaro Miyawaki registered. Lee and Rintaro went on to drop to fourth place, as they earlier lost to Woo and Paik in their head-to-head matchup last Thursday, 1-6, 4-6.