Race reaches men’s open final

Top seed Jeff Race advanced to the finals of the 2004 Shell-Telesource Open men’s 5.0 division after hurdling a stubborn stand by Lito Cabrera Monday night at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.

Race, who took the No. 1 seed in the open division after Faheem Ebrahim withdrew, had his way against his speedy opponent in the first set, using his superb serve-and-volley game to completely baffle Cabrera.

Cabrera tried to move from side to side the many time CNMI national player and current Pacific Oceania Davis Cup captain in the second set with limited success. Race was just too long and too skilled to fall into Cabrera’s ploy and Race again tattooed Cabrera’s side of the court with forehand winners and superb passing shots that painted the corners.

It became a bit testy in the middle games of the set when both players argued about blown line calls. Race appeared to get motivation from the disagreement and won the last four games to take the set and the match 6-2, 6-1.

He will now await the winner of the tussle between former youth netter Daniel Son and Jun Villanueva, which were both still playing as of press time.

Four other matches were completed Monday night as rain again visited the tennis venue and pushed off the matches scheduled in the early evening.

In men’s 4.5, Ralph Buenaventura continued his march into the finals following a 6-4, 3-0 (retired) win over injury-plagued Boyet Minor.

Tony Santos, meanwhile, won the battle of slice artists after downing tourney surprise Noel Dognidon in three gut-wrenching sets in men’s 4.0.

The former Northern Marianas College dean had a slow start and surrendered the opening set to the lefty Dognidon. The 57-year-old tennis wonder, however, came back with the vengeance in the second, chopping away and forcing Dognidon to move around to force a third and deciding set.

In the third, both players endured long rallies and back-and-fourth scores before Santos pulled away for good winning the last three games to complete the come-from-behind victory in a score of 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Santos, who also served as principals of Hopwood Junior High School and San Roque Elementary School (now Gregorio T. Camacho), will now face the winner between No. 1 seed Jess Pacheco and the always-dangerous Craig Buboltz.

A couple of mixed doubles matches also got down Monday night. In the mixed doubles open, the pair of Villanueva and Young Son got safely into the next round following a classic 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 triumph over Roy Pangelinan and Kanani Ashraf.

Father Ryan Jimenez also continued to get blessings from above after teaming up with Sally Cacdac in winning their mixed 4.0 match against Art Lopez and Matti Buenaventura 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Shell Marianas and Telesource CNMI is sponsoring the 2004 Shell-Telesource Open, which in turn is being organized by the Filipino-American Tennis Association.

For more information about the 2004 Shell-Telesource Open, please call tournament directors Elmer Guzman at 483-2004 or Alex Martin at 322-1130.