Games suspended; favorites advance

Games in the 2018 CNMI National Junior Tennis Championship at the American Memorial Park tennis court were suspended yesterday due to rain. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Several seeded players were accounted for before matches in the 2018 CNMI National Junior Tennis Championships at the American Memorial Park tennis courts were called off yesterday due to rain.

No. 4 Isaac Heo marched into the quarterfinals of the boys U14 singles after sweeping Joey Hong last Saturday, 6-1, 6-0. With Heo easing past his opponent, all four seeded players in the division are in the Round of 8, which was scheduled to start last Sunday, but tournament director Lydia Tan suspended all matches before noon.

Heo was supposed to duel Seung Won Lee in the quarterfinals, as the latter also took only two sets to beat Jun Wang, 6-4, 6-3. Other matches that were called off were the Richard Steele-Anthony Gregoire pairing; Brandon Lee vs Andy Kim; and Daniel Kang vs Hyunmin Cho.

The No. 1 seed Steele drew a bye last Saturday, while Gregoire gained a quarterfinals berth following a 6-1, 6-2 triumph over Danny Lee. Brandon Lee outlasted Andrew Chung, 5-7, 6-4, 15-13 to set up a Round of 8 tiff against the No. 3 seed Kim, who also got a bye last Saturday. Cho, on the other hand, took only two sets to dispatch Jae Hoon Son and earn the right to challenge the No. 2 seed Kang.

Matches that were suspended yesterday will be played this Friday and organizers will use courts at the AMP, Kanoa Resort, Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan, and Pacific Islands Club to complete them before the scheduled semis and finals games this Saturday and Sunday.

Meanwhile, in other results, only one match was played in the boys U12 singles with Ruma Lee surviving Nason Wessel in three sets to make it to the semifinals.

Ruma dropped the opening set, 3-6, but was defiant in the second and eked out a 6-4 win to force the deciding super-tiebreaker third set. Ruma then completed the come-from-behind win after a 10-5 triumph to set up a semis showdown against No. 2 seed Jun Cheowl Hwang, who draw a bye last weekend.

In the other semis pairing, it will be No. 1 seed David Kwon opposite Akash Rai. Rai won via walkover against Allen Cho yesterday, while Kwon got a bye and automatically moved into the Final Four.

In the boys U16 singles, only one match, too was played with Sam Ryu easing past Daniel Heo, 6-2, 6-0. The division has a round-robin format with Jonathan Lim the third player entered in the field.

In the boys U18, a pair of games were completed with Ken Song and Ji Min Woo ending up on the winning side. Song had his first match in the round-robin contest against Seung Jin Paik and labored a 7-5, 6-3 triumph. Woo, on the other hand, was pitted against Sean Lee and took the long route to victory, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

In the boys U10 singles, which also lured four players, Cojiro Kaga drew first blood after outclassing Min Seop Lee, 8-1. In the other match in the division last Saturday, Andy Lee downed Eugene Kim, 8-5.