Heras wins; Miyawaki makes finals

The CNMI’s Isabel Heras, standing right, and Malika Miyawaki, center kneeling, join the members of the GSDF Pacific Oceania Touring Team for a group photo before playing in the 2016 Commercial Club Margaret Court Cup at the Albury Grasscourts in Albury, New South Wales, Australia, last weekend. (Oceania Tennis)

CNMI junior players Malika Miyawaki and Isabel Heras both advanced to the finals of the consolation draw of their respective divisions in the 2016 Commercial Club Margaret Court Cup held at the Albury Grasscourts in Albury, New South Wales, Australia.

Heras marched into the finals of the girls U16 consolation draw and earned two wins to rule the group. She swept Jovana Jovic in the semifinals, 6-2, 6-4, and then had a similar two-set victory against Alison Triggs, 6-3, 6-1, last Tuesday to bag the championship in the consolation bracket.

Earlier, the Commonwealth player lost her opening match in the main draw against Kelsey Lewis. Heras dropped the first set, 4-6, but forced a deciding third set with an impressive 6-1 win in the second. In the rubber, the Saipan Community School student engaged Lewis in a back and forth game before the latter pulled off a tough 7-5 win.

Heras’ fellow players from the Grand Slam Development Fund’s Pacific Oceania Touring Team, Vienna Kumar of Fiji, won the main draw after posting an upset against top-ranked Emmy Lappel in the finals, 6-2, 6-1.

Meanwhile, Heras’ CNMI teammate Miyawaki also barged into the finals of the girls U14 singles consolation draw.

Miyawaki, who bowed to Ella Fraser in the opening round of the girls U14 singles main draw, 0-6, 0-3, won her next three games—including two matches against seeded players—to earn a slot to the championship round.

The Commonwealth started her string of victories with a 6-4, 6-1 triumph over Louisa Parkinson. Next up for Miyawaki was the sixth-ranked Imogen Cameron and the former recorded a 6-1, 6-4 win to march into the semifinals. In the Final Four, Miyawaki stunned another seeded player in the main draw after outclassing No. 8 Eilis Kruger, 7-5, 6-4, to enter the finale against the third-ranked Emily Ioannou. Ioannou went on to snap Miyawaki’s streak with a 6-1, 6-2 victory in the title match.

Miyawaki also played in the doubles with Tahiti’s Lea Vainui Lamorelle and they made it to the quarterfinals after prevailing against Clare D’Alessandro and Lara Wighton, 6-1, 6-0. Heras, on the other hand, partnered with Samoa’s Anasis Saipele and they finished second in the four-squad, round-robin contest behind the Fiji pair of Kumar and Ruby Coffin.

Heras and Saipele had a 2-1 record in the doubles, winning against Lewis and Julia Ramos, 6-3, 6-3, and versus Triggs and Annaliese Quarisa, 7-5, 6-2. The CNMI-Samoa tandem fell to the Fiji duo, 4-6, 4-6.

The 2016 Commercial Club Margaret Court Cup was one of the two tournaments Heras and Miyawaki were scheduled to compete in. Their second and last event in the Land Down Under is the 2016 Victorian Junior Grasscourt Championships in Wodonga and it started yesterday. Result will be reported in Saipan Tribune’s Friday edition.