Race ‘amazed’ Colin, Carol led teams to promotions

Former Pacific Oceania Davis Cup captain Jeff Race congratulated CNMI netters Colin Sinclair and Carol Lee for leading their respective Pacific Oceania teams from the No. 1 spot to promotion in the recent 2023 Davis Cup and 2023 Billie Jean King Cup.

“Well, by any measure it’s quite amazing that this small locale out in the middle of the ocean has produced far and away both the current best male and female tennis players in the Pacific. On top of that they are both just great people. Colin has surpassed all other players from Pacific Oceania who came before him. As far as I know Carol is the most successful college player from the Pacific. Given her results this year against professional players I feel confident that she is going to be among the best ever women from the Pacific as well,” said Race.

The many time Northern Marianas Sports Association Coach of the Year and CNMI Sports Hall of Fame inductee said Sinclair and Lee’s success is a testament to the CNMI’s strong junior tennis program.

“I think that their success is largely due to our strong junior tennis community, having just finished second overall in the Pacific Oceania Junior Championships and claiming two titles and a number of other notable victories. I believe that we offer excellent coaching, the ability to play many tournament matches and to some extent being able to go off-island to compete,” he said.

Race, however, admitted that tennis in the CNMI is far from perfect and went on to enumerate the challenges the sport is currently facing.

“Our biggest hurdle to greater success is in three areas. The first is the lack of a national training center. We can clearly see the difference in Guam junior tennis, with their juniors making some big strides as a consequence of their now having the best facilities in the Pacific.  

The Northern Marianas Islands Tennis Association president said the second hurdle CNMI tennis is struggling with is the lack of funding. 

“To be able to have our juniors playing in  the higher level International Tennis Federation events, almost all of which require travel to locations thousands of miles away. The third is practice partners, as our pool of players on island who can play competitively and push our best juniors, like La Hunn [Lam], is quite small. At some point in the past players like Colin and Carol had to leave here to overcome these challenges. It doesn’t have to be that way, but that is the past and current situation,” he added.

Sinclair helped Pacific Oceania to one of three slots to promotions to Davis Cup World Group II Playoff in 2024 after beating Jordan, 2-1, in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

In the Group II promotion-clinching tie, Sinclair leveled the tie, 1-1, when he beat Zaid Shelbaya 6-1, 6-0 in the second singles.

Earlier, Vanuatu’s Clement Mainguy lost to Jordan’s Mohammad Lkotop,  6-7 (3), 4-6, as Pacific Oceania went down 0-1. 

Sinclair then teamed up with Tonga’s Matavao Fanguna to turn back Lkotop and Karam Hatamleh, 6-2 6-7(5) 6-3, to give the victory to Pacific Oceania.

Aside from Sinclair, Mainguy, and Fanguna, the Pacific Oceania team was also made up of Tahiti’s Gillian Osmont and Vanuatu’s Aymeric Mara, who served as player/captain.

Iran and Vietnam also earned promotion to Group II of the Davis Cup in 2024.

Lee, meanwhile, led Pacific Oceania to a perfect 5-0 record in the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and promotion to Group I.

Pacific Oceania, the Pool A topnotcher, capped their 5-0 brilliance in the six-day tournament after subduing Pool B winner Indonesia, 2-0, on the final day of competition.

Aside from Pacific Oceania, Chinese-Taipei was the other team promoted to Group I.

Joining Lee in the team are Papua New Guinea’s Violet, Patricia, and Abigail Apisah and Fiji’s Saoirse Breen make up the Pacific Oceania.