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Japanese reign supreme in NMI tennis tourney
Japanese players are all smiles after receiving their championship awards in the doubles event of the 2017 Northern Marianas Juniors Championships last Saturday at the Pacific Islands Club hard courts. (Contributed Photo)
Japan swept all four titles at stake in the 2017 Northern Marianas Juniors Championships that concluded last Sunday at the Pacific Islands Club hard courts.
Second-seeded Otoha Aoki and Ai Yamaguchi gave Japan its first championship after beating the top-ranked pair of Yun Chen Hsieh and Chao Yi Wang of Chinese-Taipei in the women’s doubles finals last Saturday, 6-1, 2-6, 10-7. Aoki and Yamaguchi moved into the title match following a 6-1, 6-1 triumph over compatriot Momoka Hoshino and Mua Shigeta in the semifinals last Friday, while the Taiwanese pair eliminated compatriot Tzu Hsun Hsu and Hong Kong’s Alicia Yue in the other Final Four duel, 6-3, 6-2.
Aoki also made it to the women’s singles finals and she had a familiar foe in doubles teammate Yamaguchi. The third-ranked Aoki went on to win the all-Japan championship game, sweeping the No. 5 seed Yamaguchi last Sunday, 6-3, 6-1.
Before losing to Aoki, Yamaguchi pulled off an upset over the No. 1 seed Wang in the semis, winning the first set, 6-4, and leading in the second, 4-3, before the Taiwanese retired due to fatigue. Aoki also had her foe—Hsieh—waving the white flag in the second set with the Japanese ahead, 4-2. Aoki earlier dominated Hsieh in the first set, 6-1.
In the men’s singles championship match, which was also played last Sunday, No. 5 Shunsuke Mitsui outclassed No. 7 Ryotaro Koshiba, 7-5, 6-2.
In the semifinals last Saturday, Mitsui stunned the top-ranked Yi Jui Lo of Chinese-Taipei, 6-2, 6-1, to set up a title duel over Koshiba—a 6-1, 6-1 winner versus compatriot Kenjiro Shimizu.
Earlier in the doubles finals, Shimizu teamed up with Mitsui in defeating the No. 1 seed Lo and Hsiang Yu Chuang, 6-4, 6-1. The Japanese duo barged into the division title game after surviving the Philippines’ Manuel Balce III and Michael Francis Eala, 6-2, 2-6, 10-6, while the Taiwanese pair eased past Koshiba and Hisanori Suzuki in the other semis tiff, 6-2, 6-3.
