Interesting field in Open singles

Tommy Choi, seen here serving to Moris Villanueva in Week 1 of the 6th Tan Holdings Tennis Classic, will be playing in the co-ed Open singles event starting tomorrow. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Last year’s men’s Open singles champion Luke Beling headlines the draw and will be joined by the veteran Bobby Cruz, female players Negahr Rastguiy and Mikayla Lopez, and young guns Michael Ren, Tommy Choi, Luther Lizama, and Moris Villanueva.

Beling will have his first game against Rastguiy this Friday at 5pm at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan court, while Choi and Ren will play in the same venue at 6:30pm. Over at the Pacific Islands Club, Cruz will face Lopez at 6:30pm tomorrow, while at the Hyatt Regency Saipan court, Lizama will take on Villanueva at 5pm.

Four other singles events will be featured in Week 2 of the annual competition. In the men’s 4.0 singles, there are four entries in Steven Goodwin, Vincent Tudela, Robbie Schorr, and Isagani Cortez. They will play in a round-robin format.

In the men’s 40-and-above singles, the six participants will play in a regular draw with Top 2 seeds Raj Rai and Gary Ramsey drawing byes in the first round. Fr. Ryan Jimenez, Chang Whan Jang, Bob Webb, and Steve Jang are the other players in the draw with the first two colliding this Friday at PIC at 5pm and the last having their match at Hyatt at 8pm.

In the women’s 4.0 singles, only three players are competing for the championship. The short list includes Julia Ishikawa, Malika Miyawaki, and Tania Tan.

Besides the adults singles, this weekend’s competition will also have the women’s and men’s doubles and mixed doubles.

In the men’s Open doubles, Beling will partner with Peter Loken and they will duel Jeff Race and Don Dunlop in the semifinals this Saturday. The other semis pairing will have Ren and Lizama battling Villanueva and Choi.

In the men’s doubles 3.0, six pairs are contesting for the crown, while the over 40 division will have seven teams, including the Lai brothers from Guam—Sam, George, and David. Seven pairs are also entered in the men’s doubles 4.0 with Ken Imaya and Diony Castillo drawing a bye in the first round. The top seeds will battle the division crown against the tandems of Tudela and Goodwin, Schorr and J.R. Jacinto, Bong Gamab and Bob Sergio, Colin Ramsey and Sean Lee, and Dylan Ackerman and Seiya Eda.

In the women’s doubles, which has a round-robin format, three teams are fighting for the championship—Vickie Izuka and Mayling Colombo, Caitlin Tinney and Norma Ada, Maaya and C. Sato.