Miyawaki, 3 others get most rankings points in jr. tennis

Malika Miyawaki, left, poses with her girls U14 doubles partner Conatsu Kaga during the awards ceremony for the 7th Annual Tan Holdings Tennis Classic early this month at the Hibiscus Hall of the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Malika Miyawaki, Robbie Schorr, Isabel Heras, and Ji Min Woo collected the most ranking points at stake in the 7th Annual Tan Holdings Tennis Classic.

The four junior players each earned 1,250 ranking points after topping the singles and doubles events in their respective age groups in the first tournament under the 2015-2016 calendar of Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association.

The 14-year-old Miyawaki won the girls U14 singles against Conatsu Kaga and then teamed up with the latter in beating Maria Gregoire and Asia Raulerson in the doubles finals. Miyawaki was awarded 1,000 points in the singles and 250 in the doubles.

Conatsu and Raulerson are behind Miyawaki at second and third. Conatsu has 1,000 rankings points, while Raulerson has 788. Four other Saipan players made the ranking list in the girls U14 division and the list include Coume Kaga (500), Gregoire (488), Erika Tuttle (400), and Riko Ojima (200).

In the boys U14 division, Schorr matched Miyawaki’s feat after beating Ken Song in the singles finale. Schorr also got 1,000 points for his singles win and added 250 more for partnering with Song and downing Michael Ren and Vincent Tudela in the doubles finals.

Song settled for the second most ranking points with his 1,000, while Tony Kim has the third best (800). Rounding out the Top 5 after the first tournament of the season are Seung Jin Paik (500), and Sean Lee (450).

In the girls U16, Heras took 1,250 points to place ahead of Tania Tan (1,000). Heras, incidentally, downed Tan in the finals and then joined forces with the latter in winning against Mimi Sakano and Ami Tsukagoshi in the double. Sakano is ranked third with her 788 points, followed by Tsukagoshi (688) and Guam’s Alyssa Merletti (550) and Jocelyn Tenai (450).

In the boys U12 division, Woo’s pair of wins in the singles (against Paik) and doubles (with Daniel Kang) landed him at the top spot, ahead of Kang (850) and Paik (750).

The Tan Holdings Tennis Classic is one of the four events where CNMI junior players battle for ranking points to get a spot on the CNMI Team that will compete in the 2016 North Pacific Regional Championships. The three other contests are the Coconut Tennis Classic, Pacific Islands Club Tennis Championships, and the CNMI National Junior Tennis Championships.

The same competition is also one of the ranking tournaments under the Oceania Tennis Federation Circuit. Tournaments are held around the region and at the end of the season, the player with the most points is recognized by the federation.