Jr. ITF q’fying tourney starts today

CNMI players gun for main draw slots in the 2015 IT&E Northern Marianas Junior Championships as the qualifying tournament for the Junior ITF event begins today at the Pacific Islands Club hard courts.

Steven Goodwin, seen here serving against Robbie Schorr in a local tournament, will be playing in the qualifying tournament for the 2015 IT&E Northern Marianas Junior Championships today at the Pacific Islands Club hard courts.
(Roselyn B. Monroyo)

In the boys singles, five Commonwealth bets will play in the qualifier and will need two wins to advance to the 32-player main draw. The qualifying tournament has 15 players and only the four remaining players will make it to the main draw.

In the upper half of the qualifying draw, the CNMI’s Vincent Tudela collide against fellow Commonwealth player Ken Song in an 8:30am match on Court 1 with the winner facing top seed Denton Ho of Hong Kong for one of the four main draw berths. Ho received a draw in the opening round of the qualifier.

Clayton Izuka is also at the top half of the draw and will challenge Singapore’s Gabriel Jun Yong Chum for the right to face Japan’s Yukuse Miyai, who is paired against the second-seeded Kyler Jirasook of the U.S. Izuka and Chum will play on Court 2 after the 8:30am tiff between the Philippines’ Joy Dayrit and Australia’s Brandon Truong.

In the bottom of the qualifying draw, the CNMI’s Steven Goodwin will meet Japan’s Rintaro Oka at 8:30am on Court 3, while Haruya Eda will square off against Germany’s Marvin Bockers on Court 1 after Tudela and Song’s match. The fourth pairing in the lower half of the draw will have South Korea’s Justin Cheun battling Japan’s Haruka Aomizu on Court 3.

Meanwhile, in the girls division, participants in the qualifying tournament are all Japanese. Akari Miyazaki lead the cast, drawing a bye in the first round and automatically gaining a seat to the main draw.

Minori Otsuka will duel Chisato Hayakawa in a bid to join Miyazaki to the main draw, while the two remaining tickets will be contested by Riho Yuasa, Haruka Hoshimo, Risako Umekuni, and Yumi Takemura.

Otsuka and Hayakawa will play at around 11am on Court 1, while Yuasa and Hoshino and Umekuni and Takemura have the same schedule on Court 2 and 3, respectively.

Winners in the qualifying tournament will join the CNMI’s Tammy Ackerman, Carol Lee, Negahr Rastguiy, and Mikayla Lopez in the main draw, which also has players from Hong Kong, Japan, China, Philippines, Palau, and Singapore. China’s Xiaoxi Zhao and Japan’s Ayumi Hirata are the Top 2 seeds in the girls singles.

In the boys singles, China holds the Top 2 seeding in the No. 225-ranked Chukang Wang and No. 422 Yi Zhou Liu.