70 join singles events in Tan Holdings tourney

The 7th Annual Tan Holdings Tennis Classic will kick off this weekend with 70 players participating in junior singles events.

The co-ed mini tennis drew the most entries with 18, while the boys U12 and U14 singles lured 12 players each. The girls U12 and U14 has nine and six players, respectively, while six will also suit up in the girls U16 and three will see action in the boys U16. In the co-ed U18 and U10, there are four entries apiece.

Anika Camacho leads the co-ed mini tennis cast and will be joined by Davina Chae, J.C. Ferrer, Erin Frink, Sakuha Hara, Dustin Hyun, Elizabeth James, Katie Rose James, Chae Eun Jim, Do Geon Kim, La Hunn and La Mee Lam, Ravi Richards, Derek, Hitomi, and Yukiko Sasamoto, Yejin Son, and Lyssa Rae Steele.

In the boys U10 singles, which has a round-robin format, Andrew Chung, Anthony Gregoire, Min Gi Jung, and Arkash Rai will contest the championship, while the co-ed U18 singles will feature Carol Lee, Luther Lizama, Colin Ramsey, and Moris Villanueva.

In the boys 12 singles, which will follow a compass draw, Jim Min Woo and Seung Jin Paik are the Top 2 seeds. They will battle the division crown against Conrao Bao, Min Hin Cho, Daniel Kang, Soung Won Lee, Roman Merletti, Rintaro Miyawaki, Jaehoon Son, Richard Steele, and Miku Torres.

The boys U14 also has a compass draw with Robbie Schorr getting the top seed and is joined by No. 2 Ken Song, No. 3 Tony Kim, and No. 4 A.J. Hudkins. Completing the field are Andrew and Brian Kim, Allan and Sean Lee, Roman Merletti, Paik, Aditya Rai, and Jeffrey Seo.

In the girls U14 singles, the Top 4 seeded players are Malika Miyawaki, Asia Raulerson, and siblings Conatsu and Coume Kaga. Also entered in the division are Maria Gregoire, Alyssa Merletti, Riko Ojima, Joycelyn Tenai, and ErikaTuttle. Coume and Tuttle will play in the girls U12 singles, too, as the Top 2 seeds and will fight the division tiara against Anika Camacho, Sunny Hyun, Michelle Ryu, and Susan Sablan.

In the U16 singles, the girls field will have No. 1 and 2 seeds Isabel Heras and Tania Tan, Alyssa Merletti, Mimi Sakano, Victoria Smith, and Ami Tsukagoshi. The round-robin boys division has Tony Kim, Michael Ren, and Vincent Tudela.

Week 1 of the two-weekend tournament will also hold doubles contest in the boys U12, boys and girls U14, and girls U16.

Bao and Jaehoon Son will team up in the boys U12 doubles, while the other pairings are Cho-Soung Won Lee, Chung and Jung, Daniel Kang and Woo, Miyawami and Steele, and Beckham and Ravi Richards. There are only three teams in the boys U14 with the duo of Sean Lee and Rai one of them and will be playing against the tandems of Ren and Tudela and Schorr and Song. For the girls U14 doubles, Gregoire and Raulerson will slug it out against Conatsu and Miyawaki, while the girls U16 has three teams in Heras-Tan, Sakano-Tsukagoshi, and Smith-Tenai.

Games in the opening week will be played at the various hotel courts on Saipan, but the tournament’s main hub is the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan.