Do, Uemura clinch J30 champs

Japan’s Mutsumi Uemura and South Korea’s Gyeom Do came out on top of their respective divisions in the International Tennis Federation J30 Junior World Ranking Tournament last Sunday at the Pacific Islands Club Saipan tennis courts.

No. 4 seed Uemura of the girls division beat countrywoman Miku Kitaoka, 6-2, 6-3, in the girls singles finals on a blazing hot Sunday morning.

Uemura bested the top seeds in the weeklong tourney that started last Tuesday and made her way to the finals after beating No. 2 seed Leanne Abouhamad of Australia in the semis last Saturday, 6-2, 6-1.

For No. 3 seed Do in the boys singles division, he outmatched No. 4 seed Japan’s Mao Tazuru, 6-2, 6-0.

Do climbed his way to the finals after he ousted No. 2 seed Japan’s Eita Suzuki, 6-1, 6-4, in the semis last Saturday.

In the doubles finals last Saturday, brothers Aidan Lam Meng Bart and Andre Lam Jun Bart took down Japan’s Suzuki and Tazuru, 6-2, 6-4, for the championship.

Also last Saturday in the girls doubles finals, Abouhamad and Uemura outlasted China’s Peien Deng and Kitaoka in a tough three-set matchup, 2-6, 6-4, 10-8, to win the title.

As for NMI’s junior netters, they faced off against each other and also had the chance to play against players from nine other countries.

NMI’s June Yu and Hoo Wang collected their first ITF points and they couldn’t be happier.

Yu gained his first ITF points after he faced off against teammate Minsoo David Kwon in a tough three-set matchup, 1-6, 6-4, 4-3, last Tuesday. He said even though he got his first ITF points playing against his teammate, he felt happy that he had his first ITF points.

In Yu’s next matchup, he lost to South Korea’s Jun Hyuck Lee last Wednesday. With that experience, he said he learned that, “I have to be more stable to play against players from different countries.”

For Wang, she garnered her first ITF points with a win over teammate Hannah Chae, 6-1, 6-2, also last Tuesday.

She said about getting her first ITF points, “I feel very happy and I look forward to playing in more ITF tournaments. I think I was very lucky at the same time because I got to play a player who’s from here.”

Wang then lost in the next round against Kitaoka last Wednesday.

On the experience of playing in an ITF tourney, the 16-year-old Saipan International School student said, “It was a really good opportunity to actually watch the game with players from other countries. It was a really fun experience to watch them play and compete with them.”

Yu and Wang now have 2 ITF points each.

No. 2 in the girls division, Dain “Dana” Lee, who lived on Saipan from when she was between 8 and 12 years old, said that the competition was good. She didn’t make it to the main draw finals, but won the consolation finals against South Korea’s Yura Kang, 4-1, 4-1, last Friday.

The 17-year-old incoming high school junior from Florida said of the tourney, “there were a lot of good players here—talented players. It was actually fun playing with them and I learned a lot as well.”

Three weeks prior to this tourney, she competed in the Nicaragua ITF J60 and won the girls doubles event.

Fifty-five junior netters from the NMI, Guam, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Australia, U.S., Great Britain, and Chinese-Taipei vied for ITF points.

An ITF J30 event is a junior event with 30 world ranking points for the winner. Players will play singles and doubles. It is the entry level event for emerging tennis players who are trying to acquire world ranking points to be accepted on the professional tour or win a scholarship to a U.S. college.

The last time an ITF J30 event was held on Saipan was in 2019.