5 CNMI jr. netters get NZ, Aussie invites

Five CNMI junior tennis players earned slots on the ITF-Pacific Oceania Touring Team that will compete in New Zealand and Australia.

The list include Thea Minor, Rafael Jones, Christian Miller, and Tammy Ackerman, who will be on the team that will participate in three tournaments in the Land Down Under. Negahr Rastguiy was also selected on the team, but she will join the group that will play in New Zealand.

The five Commonwealth bets were chosen on the elite squad after their impressive showing in the 2011 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships in Lautoka Fiji. Ackerman ruled the girls U12 division of the POJC, while Rastguiy was the runner-up in the same age group. Miller also placed second in the boys U15, while Jones and Minor were ranked fourth and fifth in the very competitive U18 division, respectively.

“This is great news for our young players. Having five players selected is the most the CNMI has ever had and it reflects the dedication of these players, the sacrifices of their parents, and the hard work of their coaches,” CNMI coach Jeff Race said in an email to Saipan Tribune.

The four players traveling to Australia are expected to leave Saipan in the last week of December, as they must arrive in Melbourne on Jan. 1. They will then attend a camp in Albury from Jan. 3 and 4 and the next day join the Margaret Court Team event.

The CNMI netters’ second competition will be the Margaret Court Tournament from Jan. 6 to 10 and from Albury, they will travel to Wodonga for the Victoria Junior Grasscourt Championships that will run from Jan. 11 to 15.

The visitors will then return to Melbourne to watch a few games in the prestigious 2011 Australian Open.

Meanwhile, Rastguiy will be the lone CNMI representative on the touring team and she will leave earlier than his four other teammates. She will compete in tournaments in Hamilton, Gisborne, and Auckland.

It will be Rastguiy’s second tour of duty with the visiting team after a stellar debut last year. She won both the singles and doubles crowns in the girls U12 division of the 2010 Poverty Bay East Coast Junior Open in Gisborne. In the singles finale, the CNMI netter stunned Pacific Oceania teammate Ayana Rengiil of Palau, 6-3, 6-3. In the doubles finals, Rastguiy joined forces with Guam’s Nadine Del Carmen of Guam and they beat Rengiil and New Zealand’s Ariana Albert, 6-1, 6-3.

In her first competition in New Zealand last year, Rastguiy made it to the finals of the 2010 Waikato Junior Open at the Waikato Tennis Centre in Hamilton, losing the championship to No. 3 seed Nina Paripovich.