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Heo begins bid for ITF ranking points
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Posted on Apr 07 2009
CNMI top junior netter Ji Hoon Heo started his bid for ITF Juniors ranking points yesterday during the first round of the Jeju International Junior Championships 2009 in Jeju, South Korea.
Heo was in the lower half of the main draw of the tournament, which featured 48 players from Korea, Japan, Belarus, Indonesia, and China.
The Jeju tournament is a Grade 4 event in ITF Juniors calendar and offers the least ranking points and should be used as an introduction to the ITF Juniors Circuit.
The CNMI bet was paired against Korea’s Kyu-Min Park in the first round yesterday, but results of the game were unavailable at press time.
The 16-year-old Park is currently ranked No. 910 in the world in ITF Juniors and climbed to as high as No. 882 (February 16, 2009). This year, Park holds similar 1-2 records in singles and doubles and has a career record of 2-8 in singles and 13-7 in doubles.
The 17-year-old Heo is at No. 1,255 in the ITF Juniors rankings, as he has earned five ranking points in singles and 3.75 in doubles. Heo was previously ranked at No. 1,206 (Feb. 2, 2006).
The CNMI netter has a 0-3 record in singles this year and 3-3 in doubles. Overall, he owns a 1-11 record in singles in ITF events and 5-10 in doubles.
This will be Heo’s second chance to compete in Jeju and he vowed to have a better showing this time. Last year, Heo was in the same tournament, but had to go through a qualifier to make it to the main draw. He won only once in the qualifier and faltered in his bid to advance to the main draw.
This year’s Jeju tournament has Koreans getting the top two seedings in the event with world No. 68 Suk-Young Jeong ranked first and No. 201 Jung Woong Na at second. The two also drew byes in the first round.
Others drawing byes in the opening round were Dae-Hee Lee, Kaichi Uchida, Michael Tjuat Jadarma, Ang Li, Mikia Karpovich, Ki Su Jung, Yong-Jae Kwon, Sangmin Park, Genki Hosoya, Byeong-Mo An, Hong Chung, Jae Moon Lee, Jae Won Yun, Jun Nan Tao, and Moo Seong Park.
The tournament in Jeju will run from April 7 to 12. Heo will stay in Korea for another ITF event in Seoul, but this time he has to go through a qualifying tournament before making it to the main draw.
