CNMI beats Macau; finishes 20th place

The CNMI finally won a tie in the Junior Davis Cup after downing Macau, 1-2, last Feb. 22 at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association court in Colombo.

June Yu did a superb job subbing for an ailing La Hunn Lam as he took the mantle of the CNMI No. 1 seed and proceeded beat Cheng U. Chao, 6-3, 6-4, in 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Nason Wessel then dropped a 2-6, 4-6 match against Si Long Ho, in 1 hour and 16 minutes.

Yu had a second tour of duty with Wessel in the rubber doubles and went on to defeat Chao and Rongshen Xu, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 7-10, in 1 hour 45 minutes and made history for notching the Commonwealth’s first win in its Junior Davis Cup debut.

Ramsay said despite losing Lam in the first singles and Yu also being under the weather, his wards admirably soldiered on against Macau.

“June was feeling sick in the morning so we knew he shouldn’t be getting into long exchanges at the baseline. In the singles, he played super aggressive, dictating the points and never letting the opponent get comfortable. It worked well for him. Nason employed a similar strategy. His raw power stunned the opponent in the first set, but the opponent adjusted quickly and took over the match. In my opinion, the doubles should not have been that close. The games where the boys were dynamic and explosive at the net were taken easily, but that did not happen every game. They did well to hold their resolve and reset after dropping the second set and pulled out a big win for us,” he said.

The next day last Feb. 23, the CNMI lost to Kyrgyzstan, 0-2, in their penultimate tie.

Yu lost to Roman Kim, 0-6, 1-6, and Lam was derailed by Atai Aseinov, 4-6, 1-6. Both matches lasted only 1 hours and 5 minutes. Lam and Wessel didn’t play the doubles anymore.

CNMI then lost to Maldives in their last tie last Feb. 24. Wessel was bumped off by Dauod Shaheb, 4-6, 1-6, in 1 hour and 23 minutes.

The CNMI won the reverse singles when Lam won via walkover against Mohammad Nooh Nazh.

They, however, didn’t capitalize on the break as Lam and Wessel dropped a 2-6, 6-2, 5-10 decision against Shaheb and Mohamed Kaisaan Izzath Rasheed. The finished in 20th place.

Lam said it felt amazing to compete and win against the best players from the other countries in the Junior Davis Cup.

“I was lucky and grateful to have such an amazing coach in Colin Ramsey and teammates June and Nason. It was more meaningful and memorable to participate the CNMI’s first Junior Davis Cup with them. Definitely I had a wonderful and invaluable experience. The biggest lesson I learned in Sri Lanka is that anything is possible,” he said.

Wessel said they all felt relieved after beating Macau because they were a tough matchup and have more experience on clay court than them.

“So far, the experience in Sri Lanka has been great. I’ve experienced hardcourt for my whole tennis career and now I’m finally trying a new court. It’s been rough losing our pool and losing a close game to decide our placing but it’s okay because we’re facing players with more experience than us in clay court and their country selected them out of their whole tennis population. These players we’ve played are ranked worldwide in the juniors and it’s of course expected that they would outplay us. We showed that we have determination and we don’t give up and that even though we lose we’re not going have a loser’s mindset. We just come back stronger,” he said.

Wessel said the biggest takeaway from his Sri Lanka trip is to not be distracted by your surroundings

Yu was overjoyed following their breakthrough win against Macau.

“We felt happy because of it because it was our first win and I think I did my best in that match,” he said.

As for what he learned in the Junior Davis Cup, Yu said it would be to be more consistent.

“I think the biggest lesson that I learned is to be aggressive and be consistent more. I think that it is really hard because they’re bigger countries and many courts and people that play tennis,” he said.