Schorr, Villanueva enter quarters

Robbie Schorr receives a serve during his and Moris Villanueva’s doubles game against Vincent Tudela and Japan’s Kanata Abe in the 2017 Northern Marianas Juniors Championships yesterday at the Pacific Islands Club hard courts. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Robbie Schorr and Moris Villanueva gave the CNMI its first win in the 2017 Northern Marianas Juniors Championships after sweeping their opening round opponents in the doubles competition of the Juniors ITF event yesterday at the Pacific Islands Club hard courts.

Villanueva and Schorr, who are wild card entries to the 16-team main draw, eased past fellow Commonwealth bet Vincent Tudela and Japan’s Kanata Abe in the first set, 6-1, before sweating out a 7-5 triumph in the second to remain in contention in the Grade 5 tournament. With the victory, Schorr and Villanueva moved into the quarterfinals where they will face the No. 2 seed pair of Manuel Balce and Michael Francis Eala of the Philippines. The Filipino duo also needed only two sets to beat Hong Kong’s Kyle Tang and Macau’s Kun Teng Tche, 6-3, 6-3.

Joining Villanueva and Schorr and the Filipino players in the Round of 8 at the lower half of the draw were No. 4 and Japan’s Shunsuke Mitsui and Kenjiro Shimizu and India’s Kaushik Hariharan and Thailand’s Guntinun Sootinun-Opar, who eliminated the Philippines’ Benjamin Martin and India’s Mann Shah, 2-6, 7-5, 10-8, and Hong Kong’s Man San Chan and Thailand’s Nithikorn Changchroenkul, 6-4, 6-4, respectively.

At the upper half of the draw, the qualifiers were top seeds Hsiang Yu Chuang and Yi Jui Lo of Chinese-Taipei; Hong Kong’s Chun Lam and Thailand’s Wanchaichana Phasitwasan; No. 3 and Japan’s Ryotaro Koshiba and Hisanori Suzuki; and Hong Kong’s Park Hong Chan and Chun Ho Chow.

Chan and Chow won over Japan’s Nowa Matsubayashi and South Korea’s Ibin Nam, 6-1, 6-3; Koshiba and Suzuki defeated Australia’s Tomi Perica and Stefan Storch, 6-4, 6-4; Lam and Phasitwasan swept the CNMI’s Ken Song and Japan’s Goki Satoi, 6-1, 6-0; and Chuang and Lo outclassed Japan’s Hiroki Fujita and South Korea’s Dongheyon Kim, 6-2, 6-2.

In the women’s doubles, the top-ranked Yun Chen Hsieh and Chao Yi Wang of Chinese-Taipei booked a semis ticket after ousting Japan’s Nanari Katsumi and Hiromi Sekiguchi, 6-3, 6-1, and winning via walkover against another Japanese duo in Rina Miyanishi and Rinka Oyama.

Seven other pairs made it to the quarterfinals after winning their first round matches. Japan’s Kokomi Koyama and Konomi Miyakawa edged Chinese-Taipei’s Tzu Hsun Hsu and Hong Kong’s Alicia Yue, 7-6 (1), 7-5; Wei Ning Fang and Chui Kei Leung routed the CNMI’s Malika MIyawaki and Guam’s Tara Usita-Lee, 6-0, 6-0; Momoko Hoshino and Mua Shigeta booted out Kristina and Tiana Stojkovic, 6-1, 6-3; Akari Miyazaki and Yuki Sakurai won over Yu Hua Cheng and Yung Chueh Dai, 6-2, 6-4; Chen Hsyun Hiseh and Mio Kosaki topped the CNMI’s Grace Choi and Maria Gregoire, 6-0, 6-2; and No. 2 Otoha Aoki and Al Yamaguchi downed the CNMI’s Isabel Heras and Yurika Kubo, 6-0, 6-4.

Meanwhile, in the earlier singles division matches, Villanueva, Colin Ramsey, and Steven Goodwin dropped their openers. Goodwin bowed to No. 2 Storch, 1-6, 0-6, while Ramsey and Villanueva fell to Hong Kong’s Man San Chang, 6-0, 6-1, and Japan’s Hiroki Fujita, 1-6, 2-6, respectively.

No CNMI bet survived the first round in the boys singles play, which will have its quarterfinal round today. The host country had the same tough fate in the girls singles competition, which also completed its first round matches yesterday and will start the battle for the Round of 8 slots this morning.