10 get finals berths in Coconut Classic

Ten players had already secured finals seats in the 2012 White Coconut Tennis Classic after last Saturday’s games at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.

In the tough men’s singles division, CNMI coach Jeff Race advanced to the finals against 2010 Micronesian Games teammate Bobby Cruz. The two veteran players duel for the championship today at 12pm at the AMP courts. Race, who defeated Jake Lee in Week 1, 8-1, downed student Christian Miller in the semifinals last Saturday, 8-4, to notch the first finals ticket. Cruz followed suit, whipping Rafael Jones in the other semis pairing later Saturday afternoon. Cruz and Jones marched into the semis after prevailing over Amami Sakano, 8-1, and Raj Rai, 8-4, respectively in Week 1.

In the juniors singles, the finalists were boys U12’s Luther Lizama and Alex Park, boys U15’s Carl Dela Cruz and Seiya Eda, boys U18’s Sakano and Miller, and girls U12’s Carol Lee and Isabel Heras.

Lee barged into the finals after ousting Sakura Imaya in the upper bracker semis last Saturday, 8-3. Heras won the lower bracket semis against Julia Ishikawa, 8-2. The girls U12 finals will also be played today at 12pm, while Imaya and Ishikawa will battle in the consolation game at 11am.

In the boys U12, Lizama pulled off an 8-5 semis win over Clayton Izuka to arrange a finals tiff against Park, who eliminated Michael Jones in the other semis pairing, 8-2. The Park-Lizama title showdown will be played at 11am.

Dela Cruz and Eda also collide in the finals today at 11am for the boys U15 crown after winning over Tommy Choi, 8-5, and Moris Villanueva, 8-4, respectively. Villanueva and Choi play in the battle for third place at 12pm.

In the boys U18 finals, two lower-ranked players square off for the championship. The third-seeded Miller, who stunned top-ranked Rafael Jones in the semis, 8-2, faces the No. 5 Sakano, who also pulled off an upset over second seed Daniel Park, 8-4. Sakano and Miller dispute the U18 crown today at 9am, the same time Jones and Park duel for the third spot.

In other games, Mikayla Lopez was scheduled to meet Negahr Rastguiy in the women’s singles semis yesterday afternoon, while Sakiko Eda was to challenge Jodel Fernandez in the other Final Four pairing.

The Final Four round of the boys U10 was also set to be played yesterday with top seed Cole Chambers battling Robbie Schorr and Aditya Rai squaring off against Tony Atalig.

In other semis pairings, Malika Miyawaki was slated to face Catherine Atalig and Gillian Villagomez was set to duel Mimi Sakano in the girls U10 singles. Results of these matches along with the round-robin competitions in the girls U18 and U15 were unavailable at press time.

Meanwhile, seven of the eight quarterfinals berths in the mixed-up doubles were taken last Saturday. Making it to the Round of 8 were the tandems of Jeff Race and Michael Ren, Daniel Park and Steven Goodwin, Nakajima and Isabel Heras, Ken Imaya and Julia Ishikawa, Raj Rai, and Adela Hudkins, Alex Park and Steve Nutting, and Emily Jones and Dela Cruz. The quarterfinal round was played yesterday, but results were unavailable at press time.