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Top seeds triumph in ITF Juniors tourney
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Posted on May 27 2019
South Korea’s Yunseok Jang prevailed in the battle for the Top 2 seeds in the boys singles finals of the 2019 Northern Marianas Junior Championships after sweeping Chinese-Taipei’s Nan Hsun Lin, 6-1, 6-2, yesterday at the Pacific Islands Club hard courts.
The No. 1 Jang ruled the Grade 5 event under the ITF Juniors World Tour without dropping a single set, as he also had a straight set semis victory over No. 3 Matthew Garcia of the Philippines last Saturday, 6-2, 6-1. The South Korean’s other wins at the top half of the draw were against Brazil’s Nikolas Herbert, 6-0, 6-1; the CNMI’s Sean Lee, 6-0, 6-0, and Chinese-Taipei’s Hong-Lin Fu, 6-4, 6-4.
Lin also swept his way to the finale, as he topped Japan’s Kenta Miyoshi, 6-1, 6-2, in the other semis game. The No. 2 seed earlier routed Japan’s Yusen Sato in the second round, 6-1, 6-0; defeated South Korea’s Sooyoung Yang in the third round, 6-2, 6-2; and downed Japan’s Hiroki Fujita, 6-0, 6-3, to make it to the Final Four.
Meanwhile, the girls singles crown also went to the No. 1 seed in the draw after Japanese Manami Ukita beat the unranked Hui-Geyong Kim in the finals last Saturday, 6-2, 6-2.
Ukita made it to the title game after surviving an all-Japan semis duel against Natsumi Numano, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. Before outclassing her compatriot, Ukita needed only two sets to eliminate China’s Haoyan Wu, 7-5, 6-3, and South Korea’s Gio Jang, 6-4, 6-2.
Kim also had one match going to the distance, as she edged Japan’s Hiromiu Sekiguchi in the second round, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-4. Earlier in the opening round, the South Korean booted out Russia’s Sofiya Lebedeva, 6-1, 7-5, while her other straight set victories were recorded against Japan and No. 3 Kanami Hayashige (quarterfinals), 6-2, 6-2, and No. 2 Zijun Jiang of China, 6-1, 6-3.
In other results, Ukita earlier claimed the doubles crown with China’s Qianyu Liu. The No. 1 seed pair took the division championship after sweeping the Japanese duo of Hayashige and Rio Osoegawa in the finals, 6-2, 6-1. The Japanese bets moved into the title game following a 6-1, 6-3 triumph over Chinese-Taipei’s Lin and Jyun Yi Lee. Liu and Ukita also finished off Japan’s Riko Kamikura and Sekiguchi in two sets, 6-4, 6-4, to notch the first finals ticket.
In the boys doubles finals, No. 4 Fu and Shu-Lun Chang of Chinese Taipei pulled off an upset over No. 3 Jang and Gyun Seop Sim, 3-6, 6-3, 10-8.
