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Ranked players still in contention
The boys and girls U18 singles divisions in the 2014 IT&E Northern Marianas Junior Championships are down to eight players each after yesterday’s matches were completed at the Pacific Islands Club and Kanoa Resort tennis courts.
In the boys division, seven of the eight seeded players remained in contention, while only five ranked players are left in the girls main draw.
Top ranked Yinglak Jittakoat of Thailand followed the second-seeded Yuri Katano of Japan to the exit door, following a loss to Japanese qualifier Yurie Takanishi in the second round. Jittakoat won the first set, 3-6, while Takanishi evened up the match with a 6-0 victory in the second. The Japanese was then leading at 3-0 in the deciding third set when Jittakoat was forced to retire due to an injury.
With the victory, Takanishi set up a quarterfinal clash against fellow Japanese and No. 7-ranked Kanalo Ota today. Ota advanced to the quarterfinals of the upper half of the draw after easing past wld card and Hong Kong’s Venia Yeung, 6-1, 6-1.
Third-seeded Ayano Shimizu and fifth-ranked Gabriella Da Silva Fick of Australia collide in the other Round of 8 match at the upper bracket, following their easy victories in the second round yesterday. Shimizu eliminated compatriot Yuna Fukumuro, 6-0, 6-2, while Fick also swept Hong Kong’s Yuen Tung Liu, 6-1, 6-2.
Hong Kong’s Ming Chun Alan Sou, who teamed up with Australia’s Jesse Delaney, returns to Japan’s Daisuke Sumizawa and Hong Kong’s Cheuk Yin Yuen during the second set of their doubles game in the 2014 IT&E Northern Marianas Junior Championships yesterday at the Pacific Islands Club hard courts. Sou also played in the singles yesterday and advanced to the quarterfinals after beating the Philippines’ Jerome Romualdez, 6-0, 6-2.
(ROSELYN B. MONROYO)
In the other quarterfinal pairing in the bottom half of the draw, it will be the No. 4 Nanaka Takeuchi of Japan versus the Philippines’ six-ranked Maria Dominique Ong. Takeuchi whipped fellow Japanese Hiraku Sato in the first set, 6-1, before sweating out a 7-6 (2) triumph in the second. Ong also worked pulled off a tough 7-6 (3) victory in the second set against Japanese qualifier Azusa Yasaki to complete the sweep, as the Philippines’ bet earlier notched a 6-3 win in the first set.
In the boys division, Top 2 seeds Jack Wong of Hong Kong and Taisei Miyamoto of Japan are still in the thick of the fight and are joined by fellow ranked players Kody Pearson (No. 6) and Benard Bruno Nkomba (No.8) of Australia, Chak Yin Chan (No. 3) and Ming Chun Alan Sou (No. 7) of Hong Kong, and the United States’ Jack Barber (No. 5) in the quarterfinals. Completing the Round of 8 cast was Ching Lam, who was the only unseeded player to barge into the quarterfinals, following a 6-1, 7-5 win over No. 4 Jesse Delaney of Australia.
Lam will be paired against Sou, who ousted the Philippines’ Jerome Romualdez in the upper bracket match, 6-1, 7-5. In another upper bracket quarterfinals tiff, it will be Barber versus Wong, following the former’s 6-3, 6-3 win over Australia’s Chris Kafataris and the latter’s 6-1, 6-0 spanking of Hong Kong’s Fabien Calloud.
In the lower bracket, Miyamoto will square off against Pearson, who downed Hong Kong’s Wai Leuk Alan Lee, 6-1, 6-1. Miyamoto also took only two sets to boot out Indonesia’s Steven Harianto Poedji. Chak Yin Chan recorded the third straight set win in the lower bracket after dominating the CNMI’s Colim Ramsey, 6-0, 6-0. He will be up against Nkomba, who eked out a 6-7 (4), 6-4, 8-6(3) win over South Korean qualifier Yohan Sung.
