Schorr, Miyawaki deliver

Robbie Schorr and Malika Miyawaki stood out in the battle of the top junior players in the 10th TanHoldings Tennis Classic after ruling the mixed 5.0 doubles event of the two-weekend competition.

Schorr and Miyawaki passed a tough test last Saturday after surviving siblings Carol and Sean Lee in an extended game at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan tennis courts. The duo won the opening set, 6-4, but missed the sweep when the Less prevailed in the second in similar scores. Then in the super-tiebreaker third set, Schorr and Miyawaki delivered in the homestretch, 10-8, to move a win away from topping the division.

The eventual champions returned to the Fiesta courts last Sunday and this time needed only two sets to beat Helen Kim and Ken Song, 6-0, 6-1, and clinch the doubles crown. Carol and Sean also dueled Kim and Song last Sunday and eased their way to a 6-0, 6-2 triumph to notch the runner-up honors.

Meanwhile, the pairs of Serin Chung and Isaac Heo, Ikuko Obuse and Lydia Tan, Dong Min Lee and Roy Pangelinan, Annie Lai and Kazu Shintani, Norika Jim and Yuko Kumada, George Lai and Eddie Wu, Tan and Sam Lai, Matty Buenaventura and Maro Dela Torre, and Bin Lu and Yong Dong Su took the other doubles championships at stake in the second and final week of the decade-old competition.

Lu and Su bagged the men’s over 40 doubles title after outlasting Don Castillo and Don Lacbayo in the finals, 4-6, 7-5, 10-5. Tan and Lai, on the other hand, got the mixed over 40 doubles crown after beating Sarka Glajchova and Martin Jambor, 6-2, 7-6 (5), and Obuse and Eric Abragan, 6-3, 4-4 (retired). In the women’s 4.0 doubles, Tan and Obuse also went 2-0, downing Marivic Dunlop and Annie Lai, 6-4, 6-0, and Kathy Bristol and Mae Shieh, 6-2, 6-1, to rule the division.

In the men’s over 60 doubles, Lai and Wu won over Jeff Bristol and David Lai, 6-2, 7-5, and John Bradley and Gary Ramsey, 6-1, 6-2 to clinch the division championship. The women’s 2.0 doubles play also had a round-robin format with Jim and Kumada prevailing after defeating Ella and Sunny Kim, 7-5, 6-3, and Eun Ju Kim and Mi Hye Park, 2-6, 6-0, 10-7. Buenaventura and Dela Torre duplicated Jim and Kumada’s 2-0 mark after outclassing Vickie Izuka and Teresa Tenorio, 7-5, 6-3, and Karen Buettner and Ami Miyawaki, 6-2, 5-7, 10-1, in the women’s 3.0 doubles.

In the men’s 4.0 doubles, the unranked Pangelinan and Lee stunned No, 1 seed Bong Gamab and Ed Javier in the finals, 6-4, 7-5. In the mixed 3.0 doubles, Annie Lai and Kazu Shintani won over Buettner and Kam Wah Kwan, 6-2, 6-1, while in the mixed 4.0 doubles, Serin Chung and Heo beat Irin Chung and Jun Wang, 6-1, 7-5, and Karen and Jeff Bristol, 6-1, 6-4.