Lee clinches U16 singles crown

Carol Lee, seen here waiting for a return from her opponent during a local tournament late last year, won the girls U16 singles title in the 2015 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships yesterday in Fiji. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The CNMI’s Carol Lee outlasted Palau’s Ayana Rengiil in a marathon finale in the girls U16 singles event of the 2015 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships yesterday at the Regional Training Center in Lautoka, Fiji.

Lee needed three hours and three minutes to beat Rengiil and hand the Commonwealth its lone championship in the POJC.

With Lee and Rengiil being familiar with each other’s game, having joined forces in the doubles event of the same tournament and in a few other competitions early this year, the finalists went back and forth in the first two sets. The second-ranked Rengiil drew first blood with a 6-3 victory in the opening set, but the top-seeded Lee foiled the former’s upset bid with a thrilling 7-6 (4) win in the second. In the deciding super tiebreaker third set, Lee rode on the momentum she got in the second to cruise to a 6-0 triumph and end the more than three-hour finale, which was the longest match in the entire tournament.

Joining Lee and Rengill in the Top 3 was the Solomon Islands’ Georjimah Row, who downed compatriot Vinda Teally in the consolation match, 6-0, 6-4.

In other results, the CNMI missed a second singles championship after Tania Tan fell to the top-ranked Naia Guitton of Tahiti, 1-6, 0-6, in the girls U14 division. Malika Miyawaki also lost to Guitton’s teammate Lea Lamorelle, 2-6, 1-6, to finish fourth, while Mimi Sakano won over Vanuatu’s Daisy Spiti, 6-4, 6-2, and Rosalie Molballeh, 6-3, 6-4, to place fifth in the 12-player field.

In the boys U14 singles, Robbie Schorr prevailed against fellow CNMI player Ken Song, 6-2, 6-2, to complete the Top 3 behind champion Clement Mainguy of Vanuatu and Tahiti’s Gillian Osmont. Mainguy pulled off an upset over the top-ranked Osmont in the finals, 7-5, 6-4. Vincent Tudela, the Commonwealth’s third player in the division, made it to the semifinals of the consolation bracket and finished at No. 11 out of the 16 players in the age group.

In the girls U12 division, Conatsu Kaga gave the CNMI its second third place finish after topping Tahiti’s Meherio Tautu, 6-1, 6-1. Top seeded Eleanor Schuster of Samoa won the division following a finals sweep against Fiji’s Saoirse Breen, 6-3, 6-3. Ericka Tuttle and Conatsu’s younger sister Coume ended up at sixth and eighth place, respectively.

In the boys U12 division, Ji Min Woo made it to the finals of the consolation bracket and was ranked No. 10 following a tough 6-1, 0-6, 6-10 loss to the Federated State of Micronesia’s Jerson Freddy. Seung Jin Paik, on the other hand, won his last game in the division against Samoa’s Corey Duseigneur, 6-2, 6-3, to finish at No. 11.

2 runner-up awards in doubles

The CNMI added two runner-up awards in the doubles to its collection after the Kaga siblings and Tan and Miyawaki settled for second place in their respective divisions.

The Kaga sisters dropped their U12 doubles title match against Schuster and Tautu, 3-6, 3-6, while the pair of Breen and Morgan rounded out the Top 3 following a 6-2, 6-2 win over American Samoa’s Jireh Warren and Samoa’s Leafine Cronin, 6-2, 6-2. Tuttle and her teammate Anne Skilling of FSM finished fifth after recording a 6-4, 6-3 victory over the Solomon Islands’ Prudence Bird and Vanuatu’s Desiree Signo.

In the girls U14, Guitton and Lamorelle denied the CNMI its second championship after they defeated Tan and Miyawaki in the finals, 7-5, 6-2. In the battle for third place, American Samoa’s Crystal Christman and Mychealla Miller downed the CNMI’s Mimi Sakano and their compatriot Hanisi Ledua, 6-3, 7-6 5.

In other doubles results, Tahiti’s Vaitea Molinier and Samoa’s Phillip Warren, Tahiti’s Osmont and Jeremy Guines, and Samoa’s Harley Cronin and American Samoa’s Larry Magalasan ruled the boys U12, U14, and U16 divisions, respectively.

Magalasan and Cronin stunned the top-ranked duo of Tahiti’s Reynai Taaroa and American Samoa’s Jummah Vigas in the finals, 3-6, 7-5, 10-5.

In the U12 title match, Molinier and Warren prevailed against Norfolk Island’s Sam Cribb and Fiji’s Maui Leflon, 6-1, 6-3, while in the U14 finals, the Tahitian pair defeated the Vanuatu duo of Mainguy and Marlin Hannam, 6-1, 6-3.

Still in the boys U14 doubles division, Tudela and FSM’s Joab William beat Samoa’s Kristen Pavitt and American Samoa’s John Quinn Lim, 6-3, 7-6 (5), to round out the Top 3, while Song and Schorr finished fifth after outlasting Kiribati’s Banien Ioera and Tuvalu’s Gavin Molotii, 6-4, 2-6, 10-4.