Montgomery, Quan win doubles crown

 Micronesian Games teammates Todd Montgomery and Tim Quan were reunited last week and teamed up in clinching the men’s open doubles crown in the 12th Annual PIC Tennis Championships.

Montgomery and Quan, who helped the CNMI dominate the tennis competition in the 2006 Micronesian Games that Saipan hosted, topped the four-team field, securing the championship after sweeping junior player Christian Miller and 2010 Micro Games veteran Bobby Cruz in the finals, 6-3, 7-5.

The eventual champions were first pitted against Lee Dong Min and Nanding Cajigan and won their first match last Saturday at the PIC hard court, 6-3, 6-2, to advance to the title game. Cruz and Miller took the other finals berth, following a tough 7-5, 7-5 victory over junior player Jake Lee and veteran Roy Pangelinan.

Also seeing action in the adults doubles competition of the PIC tournament was another Micro Games participant-Michelle Pang of Guam. Pang teamed up with Saipan’s Lydia Tan and the duo made it all the way to the finals before losing to the CNMI’s No. 1 girls U18 player Thea Minor and former junior player Vivian Lee in the finals. Lee and Minor pulled off a close 6-4 win in the opening set and then cruised to a 6-1 triumph in the second.

Thea Minor and Lee first played against Theecel Minor and Mikayla Lopez and won, 6-2, 6-3, while Pang and Tan also won over Theecel and Lopez, 6-2, 6-1, to march into the finals.

Three other doubles events were played in Week 1 of the two-weekend PIC tournament with the tandems of Nina Engelhardt and Heather Sullivan, Ernie Henzon and James Libut, and Feel Kalen and Dong Lacbayo ruling their respective divisions.

Engelhardt and Sullivan took the women’s 3.0 doubles crown after beating Joy Minor and Malika Miyawaki in the finals, 6-4, 6-3. The eventual champions made it to the finals after eliminating Sakiko Eda and Chiharu Sato, 1-6, 7-5, 6-4, while Joy Minor and Miyawaki prevailed over mother and daughter Ayumi and Conatsu Kaga, 6-3, 6-3.

In the men’s 3.0 doubles, Libut and Henzon dueled the father and son pair of Randy and Richard Steele and won in straight sets, 6-1, 6-0. The men’s 4.0 doubles was also a two-team battle with Kalen and Lacbayo downing George Poquiz and Abe Malae, 6-0, 6-3.

Meanwhile, the last week of the PIC tournament will be played today with players competing in the adults singles and juniors doubles.