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Heras, Lee win opening matches in Jr. ITF tourney
Isabel Heras, seen here in action during the Tan Holdings Tennis Classic at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan, won her opening match in the doubles event of the 2016 Oceania Closed Junior Championships in Fiji. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)
The CNMI’s Carol Lee and Isabel Heras had a good start in the singles and doubles competitions in the 2016 Oceania Closed Junior Championships in Fiji.
Lee won her opening singles match last Wednesday after sweeping Australian wild card entry Caitlyn Portela, 4-1, 4-1. However, Lee dropped her second round game opposite another Australian bet Daniela Kovacevic. The No. 8 seed Aussie outlasted the unranked Lee, 5-3, 5-3, to move to the quarterfinals where the former was booted out by the No. 1 pick Violet Apisah of Australia, 6-3, 6-4. Apisah went on to advance to the finals against the second-ranked Kaitlin Staines, also of Australia. The title match will be played today.
Besides Lee, Tania Tan and Heras played, too in the main draw of the girls singles. Tan was pitted against Staines in the opening round with the latter cruising to a 4-0 , 4-0 victory. Heras also faced a seeded foe in the first round, losing to No. 6 Jessica Saviacic, 2-4, 1-4.
The opening round and quarterfinal matches in the singles play were played in shorts sets as the ranking tournament started two days late due to rain.
The preliminary doubles matches were also shortened with Heras and partner Luciana Kunkel of Australia surviving the Solomon Islands’ Georjemah Row and Vinda Teally in a super-tiebreaker third set, 5-3, 3-5, 10-8.
With the close win, Heras and Kunkel made it to the quarterfinals where they eventual bowed to third-ranked Gabriella Da Silva and Lisa Mays, 1-4, 0-4. Lee and teammate Ayana Rengiil of Palau, are also out of contention in the doubles after losing to the No. 2 pair of Staines and Zaviavic, 3-5, 3-5.
Meanwhile, 13 members of the CNMI Junior Tennis Team left Saipan last Thursday to reunite with Lee, Heras, and Tan in Fiji and compete in the 2016 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships. Robbie Schorr, Ken Song, Tony Kim, Sean Lee, Malika Miyawaki, Asia Raulerson, Conatsu and Coume Kaga, Marie Gregoire, Ji Min Woo, Seung Jin Paik, Michael Ren, and Vincent Tudela headed to Fiji along with CNMI and North Pacific Team head coach Jeff Race.
The POJC will begin on Monday and will run until next weekend.
