4 make it to singles consolation finals in Fiji

The NMI National Junior Tennis Team’s singles players Irin Chung, Siwoo Lee, Henry Choi, and Ian Chae made it to the 9-16 (consolation) finals of their respective divisions in the 2024 Pacific Oceania Junior Championship yesterday in Lautoka, Fiji

Chung beat Dora Moors of Samoa, 6-3, 6-2; Lee overcame teammate June Yu, 6-3, 6-2; Choi pummeled Tyrone Speed of Fiji, 6-2, 6-1; and Chae quelled Zaraan Singh 6-3, 6-1.

NMI’s Hoo Wang gave Solomon Islands’ Alicia Kanegai a good challenge before losing 4-6, 7-6 13-15.

Then last Monday, NMI’s La Hunn Lam suffered a back injury in his match against Keanu Le Foc of Tahiti which ended his run in the tourney.

He led Le Foc, 3-1, and held two set points further down the stretch, but lost the first set tiebreaker, 7-9. In the second set he was forced to retire with a back injury at 0-3 and will miss the next couple of months at least.

In the tourney, according to coach Jeff Race, the greatest singles success belongs to Anne Lee who powered past Alexandria Amoa of American Samoa, 6-1, 6-0, to reach the semifinals after their game last Monday.

But in their matchup yesterday, Anne suffered a bitter disappointment having won and lost the first two sets 6-2 and 2-6 respectively. Anne led, 9-5, in the super tiebreaker but her lead evaporated as her opponent from Tuvalu, Alalilo Tepa, won the final six points to win, 11-9.

In the 12 boys division, they narrowly lost on Monday against Papua New Guinea. Michael Jeon snuck by his PNG opponent 6-2, 3-6, 10-4. Daniel “DK” Kang could’ve put PNG away but his guy slipped by him 4-6, 6-3, 10-2. Then it was another close one in doubles which Jeon and Matt Zhu took to a super tiebreaker, losing 4-6, 6-3, 10-5

The girls 12’s suffered their first loss of the tournament when they went down to a strong Tahiti team 1-2 also last Monday. Stella Choi, playing in the first position, lost 6-4, 6-1. Right after that, Emma Lang evened things up, 1-1 with a hard fought 6-7, 6-3, 10-5 win. They settled for fourth place overall after their match today.

Even with the losses, Race said the team did well.

“There is always very tough competition here. These are the best players from each region of Pacific Oceania. All of them had to qualify to play here just as we did. Similar to last year I feel like our juniors still need to improve on the mental side of the game. That and they just need to practice more,” he said. He added that the lack of facilities on Saipan to train on is also a disadvantage to NMI netters.

“With only three public tennis courts available in the afternoon and evening time during the week our kids are at a serious disadvantage in comparison to almost all of the most successful teams here. We just don’t have comparable facilities available to us,” he said.

For Colin Ramsey, who supervised the 12’s boys and girls teams, he said, “Our 12s boys had a tough route in the pool play, suffering a few close defeats that could have gone either way. Those definitely had an effect on their confidence coming into their placement match that they also lost, placing them last in the tournament. They make a decent team and I was definitely surprised by the end result, but sometimes the losses are the best learning experiences.”

As for the girls’ team, he said that they were seeded second in the tourney. Stella was seeded first, Lang was second, and Selina Chi was third. “They took charge and beat the three other teams in their pool, but lost in the semifinals and again in the tie for third place, landing them in 4th place,” said Ramsey.

Ramsey said that tears were shed by the team as they knew they could have performed better in a few pressure situations. Even with that, he said, “I’m very proud of the confidence they showed in their matches. They definitely learned lots from their experience and will be back next year for the #1 spot. Stella and Emma have one more year in the 12U division so they have a great chance to sweep the tournament next year.”

As for the boys, he said, “None of the boys will be in the 12U category next year so I think the difficulty this year will be fielding a team to compete. I doubt we will be making an appearance in the boys 12s finals for a few years.”