H.K. player gets last qualifying slot

Hong Kong’s Matthew Yee makes a backhand return to the Philippines’ Benjaminjacob Martin during the first set of their game in the qualifying round of the 2016 IT&E Northern Marianas Juniors Championships yesterday at the Pacific Islands Club. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Hong Kong’s Matthew Yee outlasted the Philippines’ Benjaminjacob Martin in three sets to clinch the last qualifying berth in the boys singles event of the 2016 IT&E Northern Marianas Juniors Championships yesterday at the Pacific Islands Club.

Yee pulled off a 7-6 (3) win in the opening set that lasted for more than one hour, but failed to close out the match when Martin recorded an impressive 6-0 win in the second. After being shut down in the second set, Yee came out strong in the deciding third set and posted a 6-3 triumph to join fellow qualifiers Taiyo Yamanaka and Ryuhei Azuma of Japan and South Korea’s Min Seok Sim to the 32-player main draw.

Yamanaka took the first qualifying slots after his opponent—Ethan Shoesmith of Australia—retired (ill) with the Japanese leading in the opening set, 4-1. Yamanaka’s compatriot, Azuma, followed suit after easing past another Aussie bet in Charles Dossetter, 6-1, 6-2.

With the first three qualifying sets taken, the attention of the spectators turned to Yee and Martin, who played on Court 1. The two players went back and forth in the opening set, which saw CNMI coach Jeff Race umpiring the latter part of the tension-filled first set as Yee and Martin were both contesting each other’s calls. In the end, Yee slipped past Martin in the first set, but ran out of juice in the second, allowing the PH bet to blank him. However, the Hong Kong player still had the last say as he won the deciding third set.

With Yee moving on, he will face Japan’s Taiyo Hirano in today’s opening round.

Fifteen other matches in the first round of the boys singles are scheduled today and tomorrow. The opening games will feature the Top 8 seeds, three wild card entries, a lucky loser (Shoesmith), and players from Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, South Korea, Chinese-Taipei, American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Malaysia.

Chinese-Taipei’s Cing-Yang Meng and Cheng-Chieh Wang are the Top 2 seeds, while the other ranked players (from No. 3 to 8) are Hong Kong’s Alester Magalit, Japan’s Ryuki Matsuda, South Korea’s Yohan Sung, Japan’s Tsubasa Kato, Hong Kong’s Jonathan Zhang, and Japan’s Kairi Inoue.

The CNMI’s Moris Villanueva, Ken Song, and Robbie Schorr are the wild card entries. Villanueva will duel Matsuda today, while Song and Schorr will collide against Wang and Fumiya Yoshino, respectively.

Lee seeded sixth in girls singles
Meanwhile, the girls singles draw was released last night with the CNMI’s Carol Lee among the seeded players in the field.

Lee is seeded at No. 6 and is at the lower half of the draw along with fellow Commonwealth players Isabel Heras, Ami Tsukagoshi, Asia Raulerson, and Malika Miyawaki. The 14-year-old Lee will have her first round match today against Japan’s Yuna Ukita. Heras will face a seeded foe in No. 4 Yuelin Chen of Chinese-Taipei, while Tsukagoshi will also challenge a ranked opponent in Japan’s Mana Kawamura. Miyawaki has the toughest draw in the first round, as she will go up against the second-seeded Chaudia Ng of Hong Kong, while Raulerson will face the unranked Seko Oyama.

At the top half of the draw, Tania Tan will meet Yuna Fukumuro, while the returning Negahr Rastguiy will square off against Palau’s Ayana Rengiil.