Official notes high-level tennis games

Oceania Tennis Federation executive director and International Tennis Federation referee Patrick O’Rourke noticed the high standard of games in last week’s 2015 IT&E Northern Marianas Junior Championships.

The CNMI’s Carol Lee returns to Japan’s Ayumi Hirata during their singles game in the 2015 IT&E Northern Marianas Junior Championships last week at the Pacific Islands Club tennis courts. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

“For a Grade 5 tournament like this, it was great to see a lot of high quality games. The players who joined the tournament were not ranked high internationally, but their talents can be compared to those who have high rankings,” said O’Rourke, who led the awarding of plaques to the girls and boys singles and doubles champions of the ITF Juniors event last Sunday at the Pacific Islands Club.

Japan swept the six-day competition with Yuki Naito and Rimpei Kawakami winning the girls and boys singles event and Sakura Hondo and Ayano Shimizu and Tomohiro Masabayashi and Kento Yamada topping the doubles contest.

“Though the Japanese won all the events, they were not the only ones who played very well in this tournament. We also saw some fantastic talents from Hong Kong and Singapore,” O’ Rourke said.

Visiting players were so talented that there were several matches decided in super tiebreakers, including the two semis matches and finale in the boys doubles.

“Even the local players showed some quality games despite getting terrible draws,” added O’Rourke, who facilitated the competition with the help of wife Linda and volunteers from Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association.

The official picked Mikayla Lopez and Carol Lee among the list of CNMI players who held their own against the visiting athletes.

“Mikayla had her best performance this year, while Carol played well even though she battled the top seeds both in the singles and doubles. I think if CNMI players had better draws, they would have made it to the next round,” O’Rourke said.

Lopez marched into the semifinals of the singles event and advanced to the quarterfinals in the doubles, while Lee was eliminated right in the first round of both events. The 13-year-old Lee was pitted against the No. 1 ranked Ayumi Hirata of Japan and forced a tiebreak in the first set before losing the match, 7-6 (3), 6-2. In the doubles, Lee and partner Casey Cummings fell to the second-seeded pair of Hirata and Nagomi Higashitani, 1-6, 2-6.

“With unlucky draws like that, it is unlikely that Carol will progress. But she was able to send the first set to a tiebreak and that’s huge considering she was up against the top-ranked player. Our No. 1 and 2 boys (Luther Lizama and Colin Ramsey) also faced the Top 2 seeds in the first round. They could have beaten other players if they were not given tough assignments in the first round,” CNMI coach Jeff Race said, agreeing with O’Rourke’s observation about the draws.

“However, overall our players did well. They were able to play against good players, gauge the level they are into and see what it would take to beat these players in future tournaments,” Race added.

Meanwhile, Race would like to thank all the supporters of last week’s competition, particularly the title sponsor IT&E. Other supporters of the ITF Juniors event were Marianas Visitors Authority, Coca-Cola/Powerade, Hertz Rent A Car, Deepstar Submarine, TSL Foundation, and OTF.