Top seeds Carol, Helen outlast foes in U18 doubles

The favored pair of Carol Lee and Helen Kim advanced to the second round of the U18 doubles of the SIS STUCO Tennis Tournament last Sunday at Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan tennis courts.

Lee and Kim, however, didn’t have a walk in the park in their opening round assignment, as the duo of Jimin Woo and Andrew Chung gave them quite a challenge, especially in the first set.

Woo and Chung jumped the gun on Lee and Kim and took the opening set 4-1. Lee and Kim regrouped in the second set and with their backs against the wall squared up the score with a 4-2 victory in the second. In the tiebreaker, Lee and Kim made quick work of their upstart opponents before prevailing, 10-2.

In the other U18 doubles match at the Garapan hotel, Andy Kim and Steven Goodwin also had to overcome a first set loss to prevail over David Kwon and Isaac Heo.

Kwon and Heo had an auspicious start as they dominated Kim and Goodwin for a 4-1 victory in the opening set. Their cheers didn’t last long though, as Kim and Goodwin stayed alive with a 4-2 win in the second and then carried that momentum for a 10-7 win in the tiebreaker to advance to the second round.

In the U18 doubles matches at the American Memorial Park tennis courts, Ken Song and Serin Chung had a relatively easy time dispatching Sam Ryu and Jun Wang, 4-2, 4-2.

The other pairing at the AMP venue had Robbie Schorr and Sei Yul Hong facing Sean Lee and Juncheol Hwang. The seeded pair of Schorr and Hong also had to rally to victory after dropping the first set.

Lee and Hwang played inspired tennis in the first set to win 4-2. Schorr and Hong, however, worked doubly hard in the second set and forced a tiebreaker with the narrowest of margins, 5-3. They then capped the comeback with a 10-7 win in the aforementioned tiebreaker.

In the U14 doubles games played at the Fiesta Resort tennis courts, Anna Kwon and Lina Tsukagoshi advanced to the second round after beating Wataru Kadokura and Landon Pudney, 3-5, 4-0, 11-9.

Yutaka Kadokura and Hannah Chung joined them in the upper half of the draw after downing June Yu and Jeong Bin Park, 3-5, 4-2, 10-4.

Irin Chung and Anne Lee are also safely into the next round following a 4-2, 5-3 victory over Takeru Jim and Ji Hoon Park.

Nason Wessel and Jace Chung then completed the cast in the second round after the duo defeated Anna Kwon and Ocean Kan, 4-1, 5-3.

The rest of the matches in the U18 doubles and U14 doubles as well as the boys U18, boys U16, girls U14, and girls U12 will be played this weekend at the AMP and Fiesta Resort tennis courts.

The Saipan International School student council is organizing the SIS STUCO Tennis Tournament. It is being held to fundraise for the school’s many activities, including prom. SIS student and CNMI junior national player Malika Miyawaki is coordinating the entire tournament with the help of CNMI national tennis coach and sports hall of famer Jeff Race.