5 CNMI jr. players gain seeding in Fiji

Five CNMI junior tennis players are seeded in the 2015 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships which will kick off today at the Regional Training Center in Lautoka, Fiji.

The CNMI’s junior tennis players and coach Jeff Race, second from right, third row, pose for a group photo at the departure area of the Saipan International Airport last Thursday before leaving for Fiji to compete in the 2015 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships. (Contributed Photo)

Carol Lee leads the list of Commonwealth bets ranked in their respective age group as the world No. 780 is seeded first in the girls U16 singles. Conatsu Kaga and Tania Tan are ranked second in the U12 and U14, respectively. Malika Miyawaki is also seeded in the girls U14 singles at No. 4, while Robbie Schorr has the same ranking in the boys U14 division.

Joining the five seeded players on the CNMI Team are Coume Kaga, Ericka Tuttle, Ji Min Woo, and Seung Jin Paik, Ken Song, Vincent Tudela, Mimi Sakano, Isabel Heras and Ami Tsukagoshi, coach Jeff Race, and officials Lydia Tan and Jeff Schorr. The Commonwealth players are representing the North Pacific Team in the Aug. 17 to Aug. 24 tournament and will be up against the East and West squads. Race and company arrived in Fiji last Friday and spent the weekend holding practice sessions at the RTC in time for today’s opening matches.

Today’s kickoff will feature only singles matches with players competing in pool play to determine the qualifiers in the playoff round.
In the girls U12 singles, the second-ranked Conatsu is in Group B and will duel Tahiti’s Meherio Tautu in the opening match. The other pairing in Group B will have Samoa’s Leafine Cronin battling Vanuatu’s Desiree Signo.

The younger Kaga is in Group A in the pool play, along with Samoa’s Eleanor Schuster, Solomon Island’s Prudence Bird, and fellow North bet and Federated State of Micronesia’s Anne Skilling. Coume will have a tougher opening game in her group as she faces the top-ranked Schuster today. Completing the girls U12 singles are Group C’s Tuttle, Jireh Warren of American Samoa, Solomon’s Zorika Morgan and Fiji’s Saoirse Breen. Tuttle is paired against the fourth-ranked Breen in the opening day.

In the boys U12 singles, Paik is in Group B and will square off against the Norfolk Island’s Sam Cribb. Guam’s Andrew Leng and Tahiti’s Elie Monovai complete Group B. The CNMI’s other representative in the division, Woo, is in Group C and will go up against the fourth-seeded Philip Warren of Samoa in Day 1. Fiji’s Mayu Leflon and Kelese Kofe round up the pool, while Group A has the top-ranked Vaite Molinier of Tahiti, FSM’s Jerson Freddy, Vanuatu’s Warea Tigona, and Samoa’s Corey Duseigneur.

In the boys U14 singles, the fourth-seeded Schorr will be playing in Group C along with Fiji’s Arman Davias and Gavin Moliti and Samoa’s Kristen Pavitt. Moliti is Robbie’s first round foe.

In Group B, Tudela is paired against Jeremy Guines of Tahiti in Day 1, while the second-ranked Clement Mainguy of Vanuatu and Fihi’s Shabi Ajhmeer collide in the other opening round matchup in the pool. In Group D, Song is pitted against American Samoa’s John Quin Lim, while the pool’s other Day 1 tiff features the showdown between the third-seeded Banien Ioera of Kiribati and Fiji’s Nakul Sachindra.

In the girls U14 division, there are only three pools with the CNMI’s Sakano in Group A and going up against American Samoa’s Crystal Christman in the opening round today. Tan and Miyawaki, on the other hand, will face Solomon’s Chrisma Au and Kiribati’s Caroline Mwang in Group B and C, respectively.

The girls U16 singles is also divided into three pools with the CNMI’s, Lee, Heras and Tsukagoshi in Groups A, B, and C. Lee opens her bid against FSM’s Sunshein Palik, while the other opening day match in Group A has Fiji’s Rubby Coffin challenging American Samoa’s Michelle Miller. In Group B, Heras takes on American Samoa’s Anasis Saipele and the second-ranked Ayana Rengiil of Palau battles Fiji’s Vienna Kumar. For the Group C Day 1 matches, Tsukagoshi squares off against the third-seeded Georjimah Row of Solomon Islands, while the fourth-seeded Vinda Teally, also of Solomon, the meets Guam’s Tara Lee.