Girls U12 singles semis cast complete

Helen Kim attempts a shot near the net during her and Tania Tan’s mixed up doubles game against Sean Lee and Ruma Lee in the 2018 Coconut Tennis Classic yesterday at the American Memorial Park tennis courts. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The Top 2 seeds led the semis cast in the girls U12 singles event in the 2018 Coconut Tennis Classic, which kicked off over the weekend at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.

No.1 Helen Kim drew a bye in the six-player field to automatically move into the Final Four and was scheduled to face Serin Chung. The other semis pairing had No. 2 Dana Lee, which also got a bye in the opening week, battling Ye Jin Son. The semis matches were slated yesterday, but results have yet to be posted on the event’s website at press time.

Son made it to the semis after sweeping Fanai Staffler last Saturday, 6-1, 6-2, while Chung also took only two sets to eliminate Hoo Wang, 6-3, 6-2.

In the boys U12 singles, only three matches in the round-robin contest were completed last Saturday. Ruma Lee won the opening match after stunning No. 1 seed Nason Wessel, 7-6, 0-6, 10-8, while Jun Sheol Hwang defeated La Hunn Lam, 6-2, 6-4. In the third match, No. 1 seed David Kwon outclassed Alvin Bang, 6-0, 6-2. The player with the best win-loss record in the round-robin play will take the division championship.

In the boys U14 singles, two matches were played last Saturday with Eubin Park and Hyunmin Cho on the winning end. The No. 4 seed Park swept Jae Hoon Son, 6-1, 6-1, to advance to the quarterfinals where the former was set to challenge the winner in the match between Isaac Heo and Joey Hong. Cho, on the other hand, beat Mingi Jung, 6-4, 6-0, to arrange a quarterfinal date against No. 2 seed Daniel Kang, who drew a bye in the first round.

In the boys U16 singles, only one match was scheduled last Saturday with Sam Ryu prevailing against Daniel Heo, 6-4, 6-0. With the victory, Ryu earned the right to face No. 1 seed Robbie Schorr in the quarterfinals. Schorr, along with No. 2 seed Ken Song, Eugene Park, No. 3 Ji Min Woo, Kazuma Nakabayashi, Seung Jin Paik, and Sean Lee got byes in the opening round.

Lee and Paik were then slated to face off in the Round of 8 with the winner meeting either Schorr or Ryu in the semifinals at the upper half of the draw. In the lower half, the quarterfinals pairing were Woo versus Nakabayashi and Song against Park.

Meanwhile, games in the boys and girls U10, men’s and women’s over 40, and women’s singles will be played this weekend. The men’s singles, which featured seven players, had its first round of matches yesterday and results were unavailable at press time. The complete results in the opening week of the 2018 Coconut Classic will be reported in Saipan Tribune’s Tuesday and Wednesday issues.