NMI has strong men’s tennis team

While the women’s team will be playing sans No. 1 Kana Aikawa, the men’s team was able to enlist all top players from the CNMI for the 6th Micronesian Games.

According to player-coach Jeff Race, already assured of slots are himself, standout Tim Quan, and veteran Tim Montgomery.

“We’re going to have two other guys, one for singles and another for doubles, so that way we get five men involved,” he said.

With that, Ralph Buenaventura will compete in the singles competition, while the final slot for the doubles team is still up for grabs.

“We’re looking at probably Ji Hoon Heo or Nicolas Son for the doubles,” Race said, citing that the five-man squad will share duties in singles and doubles play. “Ralph will be in the singles because he has been playing really consistently in the singles.”

Heo, Son, and Buenaventura are currently the top youth netters on island, taking turns winning youth tournaments and on occasions, the men’s division.

For his part, Quan, who was on island late last year, easily earned his spot in the team after overcoming all tasks in the challenge matches set up by the Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association to determine who will suit up for the CNMI team.

Quan is currently attending Santa Clara University in California, and in an email, said his focus is preparing for the Games, citing that he had joined a public clinic conducted at his school’s campus.

“What I am trying to improve about my tennis game is my footwork,” he said. “I really want to move fast within the court and to get in good position for all of my shots. What I am trying to improve on in bettering my game for the Micro Games is to get into really good shape and again improve my footwork to the fullest.”

Montgomery is already known as one of the elite netters in the CNMI, and has proven to be a strong competitor in international competitions as he also represented the CNMI in the South Pacific Games in Suva, Fiji in 2003.

“We’re doing okay,” Race said. “Everybody’s been training. They slacked off a little bit while I was gone [for Pacific Oceania Davis Cup]. When I came back I put them right back to work again and they said ‘don’t we get a ease back into it’ and I said ‘no way you guys are supposed to be training. The whole time I was gone, I was training.’ They’re back into routine now. We just have a couple months left to go and I think we’ll have a really competitive men’s team and will be in the hunt for a medal.”

Like the women’s team, which comprises of Mayuko Arriola, Vivian Lee, Audrey Motto, and Lila Mailman, the men’s team trains five days a week, with sessions on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and double sessions on Saturdays.

The Micro Games kicks off on June 23 and will conclude on July 2, with tennis to be played at the Pacific Islands Club and the Coral Ocean Point Golf Resort.