Japanese pair stuns seeded foes

Japan’s Tsubasa Kato makes a forehand slice while teammate Yusuke Miyai looks on during their doubles game against the Philippines’ Jerome Romualdez and Hong Kong’s Alester Magalit in the 2016 IT&E Northern Marianas Juniors Championships yesterday at the Pacific Islands Club hard courts.
(Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Upset marked the start of the boys doubles contest in the 2016 IT&E Northern Marianas Juniors Championships as a Japanese pair pulled the rug from under their seeded opponents.

Unranked Yusuke Miyai and Tsubasa Kato swept the second-seeded duo of Hong Kong’s Alester Magalit and the Philippines’ Jerome Romualdez, 6-4, 6-0, yesterday at the Pacific Islands Club to advance to the quarterfinal round of the lower half of the bracket.

Romualdez and Magalit were the only ranked players who failed to survive the opening round of the doubles events as No. 1 seed Ryuki Matsuda of Japan and Yohan Sung of Korea, No. 4 Kai Kawano and Seita Watanabe of Japan, and No. 3 Ting-Hao Hsu and Cheng-Chief Wang of Chinese-Taipei eliminated their respective foes.

Sung and Matsuda needed only two sets to dispatch Japan’s Taiyo Hirano and Fumiya Yoshino, 6-0, 6-4, and arrange a quarterfinals duel against Chinese-Taipei’s Cing-Yang Meng and Hong Kong’s Kyle Tang at the upper half of the bracket. Meng and Tang eked out a 6-3, 4-6, 10-7 victory over Japan’s Tatsumi Shimamoto and Malaysia’s Darrshan Suresh.

Kawano and Watabe are also at the top half of the draw and set up a quarterfinals date against the Philippines Michael Eala and Japan’s Kairi Inoue following a 6-2, 6-2 triumph over the Philippines’ Manuel Balce III and South Korea’s Min Seok Kim. Eala and Inoue took only two sets too to down wild card entries Benjaminjacob Martin of the Philippines and the CNMI’s Vincent Tudela, 6-2, 6-1.

At the bottom half of the draw, Hsu and Wang eased past Japan’s Ryuhei Azuma and Taiyo Yamanaka, 6-3, 6-1, to forge a Round of 8 tiff against American Samoa’s Larry Magalasin and the Federate States of Micronesia’s Terry Rush, who eliminated the CNMI’s Robbie Schorr and Australia’s Charles Dossetter, 6-2, 6-2.

The other quarterfinal pairing at the bottom half of the draw will have the tandem of Japan’s Soma Yokoyama and Hong Kong’s Jonathan Zhang Kato and Miyai. Yokoyama and Zhang advanced following a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Japan’s Roma Matsushita and Hong Kong’s Matthew Lee.

In other results yesterday, Japanese Tatsuki Shimamoto, Taiyo Hirano, Yamanaka, Watanabe, Matsushita, and Miyai won their respective opening singles matches to march into the second round. Balce broke Japan’s streak in yesterday’s boys singles competition after ousting Azuma, 6-3, 6-2.

Lee, Rengiil soldier on
In the girls doubles, all four seeded teams made it to the quarterfinal round.

The CNMI’s very own Carol Lee and Palau’s Ayana Rengiil, who are seeded third in the field, booked a quarterfinals berth after knocking out the Japan’s Nanari Katsumi and the Commonwealth’s Negahr Rastguiy, 6-1, 6-1. Lee and Rengiil will go for a semis slot when they take on Japan’s Yuna Fukumuro and Haruka Hoshino at the upper half of the bracket. The Japanese pair won over compatriot Saki Oyma and Chinese-Taipei’s Ling Hsuan We, 6-3, 3-6, 10-8.

Another Japanese duo—Akari Miyazaki and Nanami Okamoto—barged into the quarterfinals following a 6-4, 6-3 victory over the CNMI’s Tania Tan and Mua Shigeta. Okamoto and Miyazaki will next challenge the top-ranked pair of Rika Tanaka and Claudia Ng, who swept the CNMI’s Isabel Heras and Japan’s Sophie Hamada, 6-2, 6-2, in another match at the upper half of the draw.

At the bottom half, No. 2 seed Yuelin Chen and Ting-Chieh Wei of Chinese-Taipei blanked the CNMI’s Mimi Sakano and Ami Tsukagoshi, 6-0, 6-0, to advance against Japan’s Mana Kawamura and Tomoko Yoshida, who prevailed against the U.S’ Sara Tsukamoto and Casey Cummings, 6-3, 7-5.

The other pairing at the lower half of the draw will have Hong Kong’s Avril Look and Hong Yi Wong dueling compatriot Alicie Yue and Chinese-Taipei’s Ya Chi Hsu. The fourth-ranked Hong Kong duo topped Japan’s Manami and Yuna Ukita, 6-4, 6-2, while Hsu and Yue downed the CNMI’s Malika Miyawaki and Japan’s Yuki Sakurai, 6-3, 6-2.