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Heo loses in ITF tournament
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Posted on Apr 09 2009
CNMI junior tennis player Ji Hoon Heo faltered in his bid to earn ITF ranking points after being booted out of the Jeju International Junior Championships 2009 in Jeju, South Korea.
Heo bowed to Korea’s Kyu-Min Park in three hard fought sets in the opening round of the ITF tournament last Tuesday. The CNMI bet drew first blood, winning the opening set, 7-6 (5) before the Korean netter regained his bearings and swept the last two sets, 6-3, 6-4, to steal the win.
The tournament in Jeju is a Grade 4 event in the ITF calendar and offers the least ranking points for junior players like Heo. The 17-year-old CNMI netter so far has gained five ranking points in singles and 3.75 in doubles to rank at No. 1255 in the world.
Heo fell to a much higher ranked foe in the 16-year-old Park, who is at No. 910 and was ranked as high as No. 882 in February this year.
With the loss, Heo remained winless in four singles games this year and dropped his overall record to 1-12. He holds a 3-3 slate in doubles this year and is hoping to improve that mark next week.
Park recorded his second win in four singles matches this season, bringing his career mark to 3-8. He has a 1-2 slate in doubles this year and 13-7 overall.
Joining Park to the second round were Jae Hwan Kim, Joo-Ho Maeng, Yeon-Woo Jeong, Ji Sung Nam, Hogi Kang, Ki Su Jung, Dong-Han Sin, Se-Chul Kim, Won-Tak Kim, Tae-Woo Lee, Mingyu Choi, Hong Chung, Il Young Jeong, Woo Hyeok Jang, and Moo Seong Park of Korea, Kazuma Kawachi of Japan, and Yun Hao Leng of China.
These 17 first-round winners will be paired against players who drew byes in the opening round, namely Suk-Young Jeong, Jung Woong Na, 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, and Jun Nan Tao.
Meanwhile, Heo has one more tournament before he returns to Saipan. His next stop will be Seoul, but he will be playing first in the qualifying tournament for a chance to advance to the main draw.
