Coume gets doubles title in Australia

Coume Kaga makes a return to sister Conatsu during a game in a local tournament at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan courts late last year. Coume competed in two tournaments in Australia this month and won a doubles crown. (Contributed Photo)

Another CNMI junior player excelled in an off-island tournament as Coume Kaga partnered with New Caledonia’s Clara Cwajgenbaum in ruling the girls 12-and-under doubles event of the 2017 Rod Laver Lead held in Australia.

Coume and Cwajgenbaum secured the division championship in the main draw of the 29-team field after pulling off an upset over the No. 1 seed pair of Arabella Barnett and Tianyu Dong of Australia in an extended finale last July 4 (results of the title game were posted at the event website just last Sunday) at the Queensland Tennis Centre in Brisbane. The No. 8 seed Coume and Cwajgenbaum stunned Barnett and Dong in the opening set, 6-2, but could not close out the title match early after the Aussie duo came back with a 6-3 triumph in the second. With the finals tied, the opposing teams had to play in a super-tiebreaker third set and they went neck and neck in the deciding stage of the match before the CNMI-New Caledonia combination prevailed in the more than two-hour tiff, 15-13.

Before stealing the thunder from the favored Aussie pair, Coume and Cwajgenbaum also eliminated two higher seeded teams to make it to the finals. In the quarterfinals, Coume and Cwajgenbaum downed No. 2 Alessia Van Der Eerden and Elim Yan, 6-4, 6-3, while in the semis, the CNMI-New Caledonia duo topped No. 5 Dayna Whiteley-Hall and Zara larke, 7-5, 6-1. In the earlier rounds, the eventual champions also swept Ezara Alphonso and Joellah Wan, 6-1, 6-0, and Amelia Johnson and Piper Khouri, 6-3, 6-2.

Meanwhile, Coume also joined the 2017 Rod Laver Queensland Junior Championships and marched into the semifinals of both the singles and doubles events.

In the main draw of the girls 12-and-under doubles competition, which had 33 teams, Coume joined forces anew with Cwajgenbaum and they were given the No. 4 seed after their title conquest in the Rod Laver Lead. Coume and Cwajgenbaum then won their opening game against Lejla Buldo and Chloe Pham at the Ambiwerra Tennis Centre, 6-0, 6-2, and then had a similar straight sets victory over No. 14 Georgia Tan and Jessie Vo, 6-3, 6-3, to barge into the quarterfinals. In the Round of 8, the CNMI-New Caledonia duo defeated another seeded pair in No. 7 Jemma Gossow and Steffani Madjer, 5-3, 4-2, to move one win away from their second finals stint in the Land Down Under. However, Coume and Cwajgenbaum fell short in their bid for a finals berth as they were beaten by No. 5 and eventual champions Dong and Thamara Frasser, 6-2, 3-6, 10-5.

In the singles, Coume won three matches in the consolation draw to make it to the Final Four. She eliminated Tahlia Kokkinis, 4-1, 4-2; Elsa Rahmati, 4-1, 5-4 (3); and Frasser, 2-4, 5-3, 10-7, before bowing to Dong in the semifinals, 1-4, 1-4.

Coume along with older sister Conatsu and fellow CNMI players Seung Jin Paik and Ji Min Woo competed in the two tournaments in Australia as members of the Grand Slam Development Fund Touring Team from Pacific Oceania. They are now back in Fiji to continue training at the regional facility in Lautoka and will wait for other CNMI players that will compete in the 2017 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships next month. Coume’s success in the Rod Laver Lead came after fellow junior player Carol Lee also triumphed in New Caledonia and Fiji tournaments.