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Lizama grabs U18 top ranking
Luther Lizama, seen here returning a shot to Colin Ramsey in last month’s Coconut Tennis Classic, leads Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association’s co-ed U18 rankings. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)
Luther Lizama took away the co-ed U18 top ranking from Colin Ramsey following his division win in the 15th PIC Tennis Championships held early this month at the Pacific Islands Club hard courts.
Counting the 1,000 points he got from the PIC tournament, Lizama now has earned 2,400. He collect 400 and 250 points from the singles and doubles events in the Tan Holdings Tennis Classic last December and 750 points in last month’s Coconut Tennis Classic after finishing runner-up to Ramsey in the boys U18 singles finale. The Saipan International School bet avenged his loss to Ramsey last month after downing the latter, 7-5, 6-2, in the round-robin PIC competition.
Ramsey settled for second with his 2,250 points after three tournaments. He earned 500 in the singles and doubles events in the Tan Holdings, 1,000 in the Coconut Tennis Classic, and 750 in the PIC contest.
Joining Lizama and Ramsey in the Top 3 was Moris Villanueva, who missed the PIC tournament and now has only 1,600 ranking points. Villanueva was at the No. 1 spot in the age group after the first competition of the 2014-2015 season as he gathered 1,000 points in the Tan Holdings event and 600 in the Coconut Tennis Classic.
Completing the Top 10 rankings in the division are Woo Sun Cho (1,350), Michael Ren (1,000), Tommy Choi (750), Mikayla Lopez (600), Negahr Rastguiy (500), Steven Lee (500), and Haruya Eda (100).
In the girls U18, Carol Lee retained the top spot after beating rival Mikayla Lopez in this month’s tournament. Lee has earned 2,000 points with the other 1,000 coming from her victory over Lopez in last month’s Coconut Tennis Classic. Lopez has collected 1,500 for back-to-back runner-up finishes to Lee, while Rastguiy rounded out the Top 3 with her 1,100 points.
Isabel Heras (500), Tania Tan (300), Ami Tsukagoshi (300), and Julia Ishikawa (300) are also on the list.
Meanwhile, rankings in the other age groups will be reported later this week.
