Previous Story
Micro Games tennis team tryouts soon
|
Posted on Sep 13 2005
The Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association is planning to hold tryouts in a couple of months for the CNMI National Tennis Team for next year’s Micronesian Games.
This according to NMITA vice president and national coach Jeff Race, who said during a recent interview that unlike the 2005 Palau South Pacific Mini Games, the CNMI will sport a full team to the Micro Games.
“We’re planning to have a full team, meaning we’ll have four men and four women players,” Race said.
Race said NMITA is eyeing the selection process to begin in about two months, and all interested who are qualified to play—five years residency in the CNMI—can participate.
“We should be getting ready to go in a couple of months,” he said. “It will only be two months before we start our process.”
As in the past, the selection process will feature challenge matches, with all interested netters battling for the four available slots in their category.
“We’ll put out word through the media and to the tennis community that anybody who wants to try out for the team can show up to a couple of meetings and whoever those people are will be the ones who will try out for the team,” Race said. “We’ll start having practices and then we’ll start our selection process through the challenge matches.”
At the Mini Games, the CNMI was represented by Tim Quan, Daniel Son, and Race for the men’s competition, and Kana Aikawa and Amanda Weindl in the women’s competition.
Race said that Aikawa, who was sharp throughout the competition, would have an automatic slot for the women’s division as long as she plans to compete in the Games.
“She’s planning to be here next year and she’ll probably be seeded No. 1,” he said. “Kana should be automatically in the team. She doesn’t need to prove herself. There’s nobody here that’s really close to her.”
Race, who is also Pacific Oceania Davis Cup team coach, echoed similar comments on Quan’s chances of being on the team.
“Even Tim has proven himself,” he said. “He may have to play only one or two challenge matches, but you have to make allowances for people who are in that situation—off-island. They’re getting a lot more competition than the people that are here.”
