2 finals seats, 8 semis berths for CNMI

The CNMI’s Maria Gregoire, left, and Asia Raulerson exchange high-fives after scoring a point against the Federated States of Micronesia’s Tatiana Panuelo and Guam’s Jocelyn Tenai during their girls U14 doubles match in the 2016 North Pacific Regional Championships yesterday at the Kanoa Resort courts. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The CNMI Junior National Team gained took two finals seats and eight semis slots in the 2016 North Pacific Regional Championships.

The unranked Grace Choi continued to step up in absence of the host’s top girls U16 singles players as she made it to the finals of the division, while Coume Kaga also advanced to the title match in the girls U12 singles.

Choi, who was unbeaten in pool play, stretched her streak to four with a 6-0, 6-2 semis win over Guam’s Anika Sachdev at the Pacific Islands Club courts yesterday. The CNMI bet will play in the finals tomorrow opposite No. 1 seed Sunshine Palik of the Federated States of Micronesia. Choi has the psychological edge over Palik in the weekend’s finale as the formed pulled off an upset over the latter in their Group A elimination match, 6-2, 6-4. Palik foiled an all-CNMI finals when she slipped past Mimi Sakano in the other semis tiff yesterday, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-1.

In the girls U12 singles finals, the top-ranked Kaga will be up against the fourth-seeded Ridianne Wolphagen of FSM. Kaga won a family affair in the first semis game after sweeping fellow CNMI bet Marielle Lopez, 6-0, 6-1, while Wolphagen stunned the second-ranked Kaia Malikooti of Guam, 6-3, 6-4.

Meanwhile, the Commonwealth swept the Final Four berths in the girls U14 singles and got two semis tickets each in the boys U12 and U16 divisions.

Malika Miyawaki, Asia Raulerson, Conatsu Kaga, and Maria Gregoire dispatched their respective quarterfinals foe to assure the CNMI the championship in the girls U14 singles. Miyawaki dominated FSM’s Tatiana Panuelo, 6-0, 6-1, to arrange a semis tiff against Conatsu, who also took only two sets to eliminate another FSM bet Anne Skilling, 6-1, 6-1. Gregoire and Raulerson will duke it out in the other semis game today after ousting FSM’s Isabel Garcia, 6-1, 6-2, and Guam’s Jocelyn Tenai, 6-2, 6-0, respectively.

In the boys U12 singles, the CNMI was left with only semis slots as teammates collided in the quarterfinal round with Seung Jin Paik defeating Rintaro Miyawaki, 6-0, 6-0, and Ji Min Woo topping Richard Steele, 6-1, 6-0. Fortunately, Paik and Woo will part ways in the semis with the former facing No. 1 seed Andrew Leng of Guam and the latter meeting FSM’s Freddy Jerson.

Michael Ren and Vincent Tudela also avoided an all-CNMI semis collision in the boys U16 singles. Tudela won over Palau’s Samuel Nillasca, 6-4, 6-2, at the upper bracket quarterfinals and will challenge the top-ranked Camden Camacho of Guam in the semis. Camacho downed compatriot James Hourican, 6-2, 6-1. At the lower half of the draw, Ren outclassed fellow CNMI player Steven Goodwin, 6-4, 6-1, to set up a semis match against FSM’s Joab William, a 6-2, 6-4 winner versus compatriot Perilo Andre.

In the boys U14 singles, Robbie Schorr kept his lead in the round-robin, seven-player field after moving up to a 4-0 record following his 6-0, 6-0 win over Sam Ryu. Ken Song is in close second with his 4-1 mark after a 6-4, 6-0 triumph against Sean Lee, while Tony Kim is ranked third (3-1) following a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Eugene Park.

In the doubles, the pairs of Tony Kim and Schorr and Sean Lee and Song moved a win away from clinching the U14 division crown. The two pairs hold similar 2-0 record and will meet today to decide the winner of the doubles title.

The girls U14 doubles championship will also be contested between two CNMI duos as Conatsu and Miyawaki and Raulerson and Gregoire improved their records to 2-0 after winning over Garcia and Skilling, 6-2, 6-2, and Panuelo and Tenai, 6-0, 6-3, respectively.

In the boys U16, Tudela and Ren are in good position to hand the host country its third doubles crown after beating Hourican and Nillasca in the semis, 6-0, 6-2. The two CNMI bets will be paired against Guam’s Camacho and Kian Malakooti, who eliminated FSM’s Sterkis Abragam and Joab William, 6-4, 6-2.

In the boys U12 doubles, Woo and Paik teamed up in whipping Guam’s Aarman Sachdev and Dakota Gibson, 6-0, 6-0, to move into the finals against Leng and Thomas Ysrael, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Palau’s Ton Lomisang Perez and Jonah Ziegler.