Battle of Top 4 seeds in doubles

The Philippines’ Manuel Balce III returns a shot to his and Michael Francis Eala’s doubles foes during the second round of the 2017 Northern Marianas Juniors Championships last Wednesday at the Pacific Islands Club courts. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Robbie Schorr and Moris Villanueva had tough luck in the ongoing 2017 Northern Marianas Juniors Championships as the latter had to withdraw from their doubles quarterfinal game against their seeded opponents.

Villanueva complained of a back injury yesterday morning and was not cleared by his doctors to play in the afternoon match, forcing him and Schorr to hand the win (walkover) to second-ranked Manuel Balce III and Michael Francis Eala of the Philippines.

The Filipino duo got a free ride to the semifinals where they will face No. 4 Shunsuke Mitsui and Kenjiro Shimizu, as the Japanese pair swept India’s Kaushik Hariharan and Thailand’s Guntinun Sootinun-Opart, 6-0, 6-3, in yesterday’s Round of 8 game at the Pacific Islands Club hard courts.

The other semis pairing will have the top seeds Hsiang Yu Chuang and Yi Jui Lo of Chinese-Taipei dueling No. 3 Ryotaro Koshiba and Hisanori Suzuki of Japan. The Taiwanese downed Hong Kong’s Chun Lam and Thailand’s Wanchaichana Phasitwasan, 6-2, 6-4, to move into the Final Four, while Koshiba and Suzuki followed suit after slipping past Hong Kong’s Isaac Chan and Chun Ho Chow, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 10-8.

Lo is also in contention in the singles title after leading the quarterfinalists’ list. He topped Chan yesterday, 6-3 6-2, to make it to the Round of 8 along with India’s Mann Shah, Eala, Mitsui, Koshiba, Hiroki Fujita, Man Chan, and Shimizu.

The unseeded Shimizu pulled off an upset over No. 2 seed Stefan Storch of Australia, 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, to set up a quarterfinal duel against Man Chan—a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (3) winner against Balce. The unranked Fujita also eliminated his seeded foe, the No. 4 Hsiang Yu Chuang of Chinese-Taipei, 6-3, 7-6, while the No. 7 Koshiba soldiered on after beating Lam, 6-3, 6-1.

Lo and Shah arranged their quarterfinals collision after ousting Chan, 6-3, 6-2, and Macau’s Kun Teng Tche, 6-2, 7-5, respectively, while Eala won over Phasitwasan, 6-4, 6-3, and Mitsui defeated Chow, 6-1, 6-3.

In the women’s singles, the quarterfinals cast was also completed yesterday with No. 1 seed Chao Yi Wang of Chinese-Taipei leading the qualifiers. She is joined by compatriots’ Tzu Hsun Hsu, Yun Chen Hiseh, and Yu Hua Cheng and Japan’s Yurika Kubo, Ai Yamaguchi, Otoha Aoki, and Nanari Katsumi.