Flashback: Tan, Ishikawa stun foes

In this 2014 file photo, Julia Ishikawa returns to Tania Tan, right, during a local tournament at the American Memorial Park tennis courts. (Saipan Tribune)

On this day, six years ago, then junior tennis players Tania Tan and Julia Ishikawa pulled off an upset over their opponents from Tahiti and American Samoa to hand the CNMI its second doubles championship in the 2014 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships Event 2.

Ishikawa and Tan stunned the No. 1 seeded pair of Crystal Christman (American Samoa) and Lea Lamorelle (Tahiti), 6-0, 6-1, in the girls U14/U12 doubles finals of the POJC held in Fiji. The sweep gave the CNMI duo a perfect record in the division as they earlier dominated Samoa’s Leafine Cronin and Eleanor Schuster, 6-0, 6-1, and topped American Samoa’s Michelle Miller and Lessei Perelini, 7-6 (3), 6-3, to make it to the finals.

Julia Ishikawa, left, and Tania Tan, are all smiles after winning a doubles title in the 2014 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships. (Contributed Photo)

Before Tan and Ishikawa’s doubles triumph, their fellow CNMI player, Robbie Schorr, also won a doubles crown. Schorr teamed up with Guam’s Camden Camacho and the Micronesian pair also pulled the rug under their the top-ranked foes Ben Pechan of Vanuatu and Samoa’s Phillip Warren in the finals, 6-1, 6-1. Schorr and Camacho reached the title match after eliminating Fiji’s Maui Leflon and Vanuatu’s Samuel Stri, 6-1, 6-4, while PEchan and Warren reached the finals following a 7-6 (1), 6-3 victory over Kiribati’s Banien Ioera and Tahiti’s Vaitea Molinier.

Schorr, Tan, and Ishikawa were part of the North Pacific Team that battled the East and West squads in the two-weekend competition. Other CNMI bets who made the selection in 2014 were Ami Tsukagoshi, Luther Lizama, Ken Song, Robbie Schorr, Malika Miyawaki, Conatsu Kaga, Asia Raulerson, Colin Ramsey, and Carol Lee.

In this 2014 file photo, Robbie Schorr sees action in a local tournament before heading to Fiji to compete in the Pacific Oceania Junior Championships. (Saipan Tribune)

Lee played in the opening week and ruled the girls U14 singles crown after defeating New Caledonia’s Leo Bolo in the finals 6-0, 6-2. The U14 title came after Lee took the U12 singles championship in 2013. Lee eventually became the first player in the Pacific to have won three age group title, as she also notched the girls U16 tiara for three straight years (from 2015 to 2017).

Lee, Schorr, Miyawaki, Song, and Tan played for the CNMI National Team in the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa and the Jeff Race-coached squad brought home three gold medals and one silver. Isabel Heras, also a former junior player, and Colin Sinclair were the other members of the triumphant national team.