Sinclair to play in Davis Cup

Pacific Games multiple gold medalist and the CNMI’s Colin Sinclair will lead the Pacific Oceania Davis Cup Team that will compete in the 2019 Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group IV in Amman, Jordan next month.

It will be Sinclair’s third time to suit up for the elite squad and this year, he will be teaming up with Papua New Guinea’s Matthew Stubbings, Tahiti’s Heve Kelley, and the Cook Islands’ Brett Baudinet. Rob Krause will be the group’ non-playing captain.

The CNMI player will see action in the 2019 Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group IV, starting on Sep. 11, less than two months after dominating the XVI Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa. Sinclair won the singles event against Stubbings and took the gold medals, too in the team event (with CNMI junior players Ken Song and Robbie Schorr) and mixed doubles (with Carol Lee). He also got the silver (with Schorr) in the men’s doubles.

After his success in Samoa, Sinclair took a break for only a week, as he headed to Kentucky to play in an Association of Tennis Professionals tournament. He will then resume competing in ITF World Your events before suiting up for the Pacific Oceania Davis Cup Team anew in Jordan.

Pacific Oceania is one of the 14 teams that will be playing in Amman, joining Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Guam, Iraq, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Oman, Pacific Oceania, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Top 2 finishers in the tournament will be promoted to Group III in 2020.

Jr. players complete campaign in POJC
Meanwhile, the CNMI Junior National Team wrapped up its participation in the 2019 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships over the weekend.

The Commonwealth bets played in the team event in the U16, U14, and U12 age groups with Juncheol Hwang closing out strong after winning a pair of matches in the North-West standoff, 7-7.

Hwang topped Peter Uila in the singles 2, 4-1, 4-1, and partnered with Guam’s Johnny Jackson in beating Justus Pyongil and Peter Uila, 4-2, 5-3.

With the North and West in a deadlock last Saturday, they also shared second place in the U12 age group after collecting 10 wins (out of 28 games in three days) apiece. The East Team, which was made up of the Cook Islands, Norfolk Islands, Tahiti, and Samoa players, topped the age group with 22 victories. The CNMI played with Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau players, while Fiji, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea suited up for the West.

In the U14 division, the North edged the West, 8-6. Serin Chung, Helen Kim, and Daniel Kang delivered crucial wins in the North’s close victory. Chung and Kim defeated Emmanuella Masaai and Kerry Waita in the girls doubles 2, 5-3, 4-2, while Kang worked with FSM’s Leilah Etscheit in the mixed doubles 1 and downed Fishi’s Storm Cornish and Charlotte Nicolaus, 4-2, 2-4, 12-10. Chung also won her singles match over Waita in an earlier game, 4-2, 5-4 (4), while Hyejin Elliot and Etscheit outclassed Nicolaus and Kiribati’s Ereti Tabekatarawa, 4-2, 5-4 (2).