Lee dominates boys U12 singles

Si Woo Lee bagged the championship in the boys U12 singles division of the 2021 SIS Student Council Tennis Tournament last Sunday at the American Memorial Park tennis courts. (KImblery B. Esmores)

Si Woo Lee bagged the championship in the boys U12 singles division of the 2021 SIS Student Council Tennis Tournament last Sunday at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.

Lee came out on top after a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Eamon Tang in the finals.

The division champ gained access to the finals after besting semis opponent Jihun Park, 4-2, 4-2. The latter landed a spot in the Final Four after a 5-4, 12-10 victory over Henry Yeom who trumped Ryan Choi in the first round of the tournament, 5-4, 10-6, to enter the quarterfinals.

Lee also prevailed in his quarterfinals match with a 4-1, 4-2 win over Ian Chae who took an easy 4-0, 5-4 victory over Quido Lucas Jambor in the first round in the bottom half of the draw.

In the top half, runner-up Tang advanced to the quarterfinals after an easy 6-0, 6-1 victory over Taher Shakir before battling Yutaka Kadokura. Tang had a rough first set, losing 1-4 in favor of Kadokura before picking up the slack in the final two sets to gain a 5-3, 10-7 win to enter the Final Four. Tang later moved on to secure the finals seat with a 7-6, 4-2 win over Ki Won Lee who made it to the Final Four after a 4-0, 10-7 win against Stephen Yeom.

Lee completed the Top 3 after coasting past fellow semis loser Park, gaining a 4-2, 4-2 victory.

Meanwhile, June Yu clinched the title in the boys U14 singles division after a come-from-behind win against Wataru Kadokura.

Si Woo Lee, right, came out on top after beating Eamon Tang in the finals of the U12 singles division of the 2021 SIS Student Council Tennis Tournament last Sunday at the American Memorial Park tennis courts. (Contributed Photo)

Despite losing the first set of the finals, 0-6, Yu avenged the setback in the second and third to steal the win from Kadokura with a 6-1, 16-7 win.

The eventual champion also momentarily struggled in the semis against Cody Shimizu, losing the first set 3-5 before gaining momentum in the second, 5-3. Yu delivered the final blow in the super tiebreaker third set, 10-7.

Second placer Kadokura went through a similar semifinal battle against Nason Wessel, losing the first set 4-6, before evening the playing field in the second, 4-2. He landed the bottom half finals seat after winning the super tiebreaker, 10-8.

Kadokura also faced an intense quarterfinals match against Henry Choi where he took the first set, 5-3, lost the second, 3-5, and broke the tie in the third set, 15-13.

Andrew Chung won a three-way tie for first place in the boys U16 singles division

Chung, Min Seong Kim, and Sam Culp finished the round-robin tournament with similar 2-1 records, but the former prevailed in the tiebreak with his 5-2 sets win-loss mark. Kim and Culp had identical 4-3 set win-loss records but the former took runner-up honors with his 23-23 win-loss game record against the latter’s 21-20.

The 2021 SIS Student Council Tennis Tournament was sanctioned by the Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association.