Beling, Race triumph in PIC tourney

Jeff Race runs for a shot during his and Luke Beling?s men?s doubles title game against Tommy Choi and Amami Sakano yesterday in the PIC tournament at the Pacific Islands Club hardcourt. (ROSELYN B. MONROYO)

Coaches Jeff Race and Luke Beling faced Amami Sakano and Tommy Choi in a finals rematch and asserted their mastery over the two junior players.
Race and Beling, who defeated Choi and Sakano in the men’s open doubles title game in last year’s Tan Holdings Tennis Classic, went 2-0 against the same pair after a 6-3, 6-4 win in the same category in the 14th Pacific Islands Club Tennis Championships yesterday at the PIC hard court.

Despite the loss, their second outing against their mentors was a big improvement for Choi and Sakano. In their first finals faceoff, the two junior players failed to score against Race and Beling in the opening set. Then in the second set of their Tan Holdings finals showdown, Cho and Sakano got only two points against the two coaches. In the second set of yesterday’s finals tiff, the young guns even launched a rally, forcing a standoff, 4-all, before Race and Beling won the last two games to foil their foe’s upset bid.

Race and Beling advanced to the finals after downing another junior pair—Moris Villanueva and Seiya Eda—in last Saturday’s semifinals match, 6-0, 6-2. Sakano and Choi also needed only two sets to march into the finals, as they outclassed Lee Dong Min and Donn Dunlop last Saturday, 6-2, 6-2.

Meanwhile, three other pairs were crowned doubles champions at the conclusion of Week 1 of PIC tournament.

In the women’s doubles open, Thea Minor and Carol Lee teamed up for the first time to dethrone Negahr Rastguiy and Mikayla Lopez. Lee and Minor, who joined forces with Lydia Tan and Melody Johnson, respectively, in last year’s tournament, dropped the opening set of yesterday’s finals, 4-6. A 6-3 win in the second set kept Minor and Lee in the game and they went on to complete the come-from-behind victory with a 6-2 triumph in the deciding third set.

In the other women’s doubles finale—the 3.0 division—junior players Malika Miyawaki and Tania Tan prevailed over Marivic Rosario and Tisha Ferrer, 6-3, 6-4.

In the men’s 3.0 doubles, J.R. Jacinto and Robbie Schorr defeated the father-and-son tandem of Randy and Richard Steele, 6-0, 6-1, and PIC’s Dennis Tababa and Glenn Policare, 6-0, (walkover) to rule the round-robin contest.

In the men’s 4.0 doubles finals, the pair of Daniel Park and Jake Lee was playing Reo Arriola and Ken Imaya at press time and results of the match were unavailable. Lee and Park made it to yesterday’s title game after a 6-2, 2-6, 6-0 win over Edgar Sergio and Toshi Beltau in the upper bracket semis, while Arriola and Imaya edged Luther Lizama and Colin Ramsey, 6-4, 6-4, in the other semis pairing.

Besides the doubles games, junior singles matches were also played in Week 1 of the tournament sponsored by PIC-Saipan, Pacific Trading, Co. (Gatorade and Monster), and IP&E. Results of the junior singles matches will be reported later this week.