Saipan, Tinian renew rivalry this weekend

Saipan and Tinian players will renew their biannual goodwill tournament when paddlers from the Marianas Amateur Table Tennis Association take on their counterparts from Tinian Dynasty and Hotel Casino this weekend.

The battle will be joined at the cavernous TDHC ballroom with the Top 6 players from Saipan challenging the Top 6 from Tinian, which have won the previous three goodwill tournaments against its northern neighbor.

MATTA players Su Yong Dong, Chen Lin Ying, Budhi Gurung, Mario Espeleta, Con Pobre and their president Steven Lim practiced Thursday evening at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium multi-purpose room on the eve of their flight to Tinian.

All appeared in good spirits with all of them getting a good sweat during their tune-up singles matches for the 4th Tinian Saipan Goodwill Tournament set for Saturday and Sunday.

Opposing them are Tinian’s Luke Lu, Charlie Cheng, Liang Wei Bin, Robin Lu, Bright Liu, and Alfred Yue. In the most recent goodwill competition between the islands, Lu and Cheng went undefeated and are primed to give Saipan players a lot of problems.

Cheng said although history and home-court advantage would be on their side this weekend, they cannot afford to take Saipan players for granted citing that they have improved a lot since their last meeting.

“Our chances are the same as before. We both have strong and weak players just like Saipan. I think we’ll again have a 50-50 chance of winning the goodwill tournament,” he said.

Cheng said Tinian players will especially be wary of Saipan’s Top 3—Su Yong Dong, Chen Lin Ying, and Budhi Gurung—who as predicted topped the Saipan leg of the Micronesian Games qualifiers following their bronze-medal finish in last year’s South Pacific Mini Games in Palau.

“Su is No. 1 from Saipan and Mr. Chen and Budhi are not far from his skill level. They’re all very dangerous. Su, Budhi, and Chen all have a chance to beat our own No. 3—Luke, me, and Liang,” he said. “If no chance [to win], then why play at all?”

The Tinian-Saipan goodwill tournament will consist of both singles and doubles matches and two round-robin rounds. The first round will be best-of-five affairs, while the second round would use a best-of-seven format.

Coinciding with the staging of the Tinian-Saipan goodwill competition is the Tinian leg of the qualifying round for the Micronesian Games, set here on Saipan from June 23 to July 3.

Like swimming, triathlon, baseball, and softball, table tennis is one of the sports the CNMI is expected to do well and medal in the Games.