CNMI jr. players fall in doubles

The CNMI’s doubles players in the Calvo’s Selectcare ITF Junior Championships 2015 were shown the exit door early.

Negahr Rastguiy, seen here going for a backhand return in a local tournament this year, teamed up with Mikayla Lopez and played in the doubles event in the Calvo’s Selectcare ITF Junior Championships 2015 yesterday at the Rick Ninete Tennis Centre in Hagatna, Guam. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The pair of Mikayla Lopez and Negahr Rastguiy was the first to be eliminated after bowing to the fourth-seeded tandem of Nagomi Higashitani and Ayu Sugiyama of Japan, 6-1, 6-2, yesterday on Court 1 of the Rick Ninete Tennis Centre in Hagatna, Guam.

Lopez and Rastguiy, who also failed to survive the opening round of the singles contest of the same tournament, were in the lower half of the 16-team doubles draw, joining their tormentors and five other teams.

In the upper half of the draw, Tania Tan and Carol Lee were pitted against another Japanese duo in Takako Aikawa and Sakura Hosogi and the CNMI bets also got the boot after only two sets, 1-6, 1-6.

The doubles match yesterday was Tan’s second straight in Day 2 of the Junior ITF event, as she earlier played in the singles division against Chinese-Taipei’s Ling Hsuan Wei. The wild card entry shut down Tan in the opening set, 6-0, before the latter played better in the second, but still lost, 2-6.

With Tan dropping her opener in the singles and the two CNMI doubles teams also faltering in yesterday’s games, only Lee will continue to play in the Guam-hosted tournament. Lee made it past the first round after ousting Japan’s Haruna Tsuzuki last Monday, 6-2, 6-4.

Up next for Lee is the seventh-seeded Yurie Takanishi of Japan. Takanishi, who won last year’s IT&E Northern Marianas Junior Championships against compatriot Nanaka Takeuchi, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, will test Lee’s mettle in the 8:30pm game today at Court 2. If Lee manages to pull off an upset against her seeded opponent, the CNMI junior player will earn the right to face either Palau’s Ayana Rengiil or Japan’s Ayu Sugiyama in the quarterfinals.

Lee is in the upper half of the 32-player draw and is joined by top-ranked Satoko Sueno, Singapore’s Ashley Kei Yim, Aikawa, and Taipei’s Ting-Chieh Wei in the second round. In the bottom half, the second round qualifiers are Japan’s Runa Ichinose, Sakura Hondo, Sakura Hosogi, Higashitani, Yukiho Uragami, and the second-seeded Ayumi Hirata, and Chinese-Taipei’s Ling Hsuan Wei.

The Junior ITF tournament in Guam is scheduled to wrap up this Saturday and majority of the players there will head to Saipan, which will host another Grade 5 event from May 19 to 24.