New winners in PIC jr. tennis tourney

The 12th Annual PIC Tennis Championships produced a new set of winners after the games over the weekend at the Pacific Islands Club hard court.

In the girls U12 singles, Carol Lee emerged as the 2012 champion after topping the 12-player field. Lee was runner-up to Tammy Ackerman last year, but this time avoided another bridesmaid finish when she defeated Isabel Heras in the finals yesterday, 7-5, 6-2.

Lee advanced to the title game after shutting out Ami Tsukagoshi in the semis, 6-0, 6-0, while Heras took the other semis berth, following a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Julia Ishikawa. Grace Choi, Tania Tan, Catherine Atalig, who used to play in the U10 division, entered the U12 age group this year and won their first round matches, but lost in the second round, joining Kaga Conatsu, Mimi Sakano, Asia Raulerson, and Malika Miyawaki in the showers.

In the boys U12 singles, Luther Lizama redeemed himself from a semis loss last year when he swept Alex Park in the finals, 6-4, 6-1. Lizama, who bowed to last year’s champion Colin Ramsey in the semis, was pitted against Steven Goodwin in the upper bracket semis and won, 8-2. Park was in the lower half of the 14-player draw and downed Clayton Izuka in the other semis pairing, 6-4, 6-0.

Izuka made it to the semis after beating Robert Schorr, 8-5, while Goodwin triumphed over Michael Jones, 8-2, to arrange a semis duel against Lizama.

In the four-player U15 girls singles, Mikayla Lopez also bounced back from a runner-up finish last season after a straight set win over Lee in the finals yesterday, 6-3, 6-0. Lopez, who lost the U15 crown to Guam’s Chloe Gadsden, earned a return trip to the finals after a 6-0, 6-1 win over Julia Ishikawa. In the other semis pairing, Lee boosted her chances for a second junior singles title when she topped Emily Jones, 6-1, 6-2.

In the boys U15, Chris Cajigan missed the Top 4 last season and returned this year with a tough title win against Carl Dela Cruz. Cajigan opened the finals with a big 6-0 victory, but fell short in the second set, losing to Dela Cruz, 5-7. Then in the deciding third set, Cajigan recovered with a 6-2 victory. Cajigan entered the finals after a 6-2, 6-1 win over Seiya Eda, while the top-seeded Dela Cruz followed suit after disposing Dylan Ackerman, 6-4, 6-3.

Joining the new set of champions in Week 1 of the two-weekend PIC tournament were U18’s Christian Miller and Theecel Minor.

Miller, who played in the boys U15 last season, was seeded third in the U18, earned a bye in the first round, and then downed the No. 2 seed Daniel Park in the semis, 6-1, 6-3. In the finals, Miller was paired against the unranked Jake Lee, who incidentally bowed to the former in last year’s U15 finale, and the latter lost anew in yesterday’s title match. Lee took the opening set, 6-4, but Miller stole the last two, 6-2, 6-4, to win the U18 crown. Lee’s another defeat to Miller came a day after he stunned the top-seeded Amami Sakano in the semis, 6-2, 6-3.

The girls U18 division was only a two-player battle with Minor cruising past Alina Ishikawa, 6-4, 6-4. Theecel’s sister, Thea, was last year’s girls U18 winner, while Rafael Jones, who is off-island, won the 2011 boys crown.