NMI netters push for strong finish in Fiji; Ashraf to play for third place

After three days of competition, the NMI tennis players competing in the 2004 ITF Pacific Oceania Junior Tennis Championships in Lautoka, Fiji are now pushing for a strong finish.

The youngest of the bunch, 11-year-old Kanani Ashraf has so far proven to be among the top in her class after finishing the regular round with a 4-1 win-loss record. She was riding on a four-match win-streak heading into Thursday’s draw when she suffered her first setback of the tourney, falling to Zinnia Leamana of the Solomon Islands in straight sets 3-6, 3-6.

Despite the loss, Asraf’s record was second best in Pool A—Leamana was 5-0—resulting in an appearance in the semifinals.
Ashraf fought hard in hopes of earning a ticket to the championship, but got off to a slow start and was beaten 0-6 by Pool B top finisher Abbey Tere-Apisah of Papua New Guinea.

Tere-Apisah would not have an easy trip, though, as Ashraf refused to give in and pounded away in the second set. She, however, fell a bit short, losing in a tiebreaker 6-7 (3).

Next in line for Ashraf is a at avenging an earlier loss as she is scheduled to battle Leamana, who also faltered in her semifinal bout.

Meanwhile, no matter what the outcome of her match against Leamana, Ashraf would finish the tournament as the top finisher representing the North Pacific, which consists of 16 players from the NMI, Guam, Nauru, and Kiribati.

The division championship will be battled between Rowena Konofilia of the Solomon Islands and Tere-Apisah.

For her part, fellow NMI netter Mayuko Arriola closed out the regular round on a high note by beating Sala Amoa of American Samoa in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 to improve to 2-3.

In a battle to determine who will play for fifth place, Arriola put up a respectable effort but faltered to Norah Browne of the Cook Islands 6-3, 7-6 (5).

She will now play for seventh place against Akanesi Fa of Fiji.

In the boy’s corner, Ji Hoon Heo dropped to 2-2 after his 3-6, 3-6 loss to Lorenzo Pineda of Vanuatu in his final regular round match.

He was scheduled to square off against Justin Dugan of Guam to determine who plays for fifth place. The winner between the two will take on the winner between Prince Mat’utia of Samoa and Manu Priest of Cook Islands.

Rounding up the NMI crew is Tim Quan, who like Arriola, posted a 2-3 record after cruising to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Yisong Guo of Fiji to close the round.

Quan then battled with Johnson Taliki of Solomon Islands to determine who plays for fifth place, but came up short and lost 3-6, 3-6. He is next scheduled to take on Willence Seymour of Nauru for seventh place.

The tournament, playing host to 48 players from 12 countries, is scheduled to conclude today.

The four NMI netters, coming off respectable finishes in the recent Verizon Tennis Cup, left for Fiji last Saturday.