Race slams Son in open finals

Following a closely fought opening set, No. 1 seed Jeff Race blanked Daniel Son in the second bringing chills down the spine of the former CNMI junior champion a couple of days before Halloween to win the men’s open championship of the 2004 Shell-Telesource Open Wednesday night.

After Race barely survived a nip-and-tuck first set, the many-time national player and Pacific Oceania Davis Cup captain hunkered down to work and seemed to be cruising, up 2-0 in the second when things got a bit testy between him and the 20-year-old South Korean.

Race apparently got upset because he couldn’t understand the scores being called by Son. For his part, the former Pacific Islands Club clubmate felt he was relaying the scores audibly.

Tempers further erupted when former Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association president Ed Johnson got involved in the fray when he shouted at Race to, “just play the game,” which drew a sharp reprimand of “Shut up, nobody’s asking your opinion here” from Race.

The exchange seemed to have gotten the better of Son’s nerves as the youngster surrendered the next two points to Race and failed to hold serve to go down 0-3.

He tried to rally in the fourth game, forcing the much older Race to run from side to side and went up 0-30. But Race bounced back quickly and erased the deficit to force deuce and he eventually won the point to take a commanding 4-0 lead.

Son continued to plug away in the next two games, leading 30-15 in the next game before a maze of unforced errors and his double fault made it 5-0.

Even at that late stage of the match, Son refused to give the championship away on a silver platter and battled back from a 0-30 deficit in the sixth game to make it 30-30.

But there was just too much experience on the side of Race and after he went up 40-30 he delivered the coup de grace smashing a weak baseline return from Son to end the game in a score of 6-4, 6-0.

“I was a little bit upset on Daniel because when you reach this level of play (men’s open) you’re expected to call out the scores in a manner that could be heard by the opposing player. And if there’s another piece of advice I could share with Daniel it’s for him to develop his backhand. I’ve been telling his for years now ‘you can’t always rely on your forehand’,” he said.

Race said he was not worried at all when Son had him on the ropes in the first set. That was when the youngster’s booming forehand wreaked havoc on Race’s side of the court as winners fell hard and frequently for Son.

But like Race predicted his opponent’s excellent start didn’t last for long and when he began to attack the South Korean’s backhand, the unforced errors began to pile up for Son.

Reached for comment after their finals match, Son said he felt down after the confrontation with Race and said he no longer was focused on the game after that.

Aside from the men’s open championships, two other finals matches were played Wednesday evening.

In men’s 4.0, Saipan International School teacher Craig Buboltz solved the riddle of Tony Santos’ chopping game and won the championship 6-2, 0-6, 6-4.

It was the first ever tennis title for the 31-year-old Buboltz. He said he was amazed at the physical conditioning of Santos and the way he excelled in the sport despite being 57 summers young.

In a battle between doubles partners, Michael Robert halted the run of Father Ryan Jimenez in yet another three-set thriller 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to take the championship in men’s 3.0. Robert advanced to the finals following a 7-6, 6-7 (0-7), 6-4 victory over No. 1 seed Gary Ramsey Tuesday night.

The two finalists in the men’s 4.5 was also decided Wednesday after Ralph Buenaventura and Nanding Cajigan defeated separate opponents. Buenaventura downed No. 1 seed Buddy Garote 6-3, 6-3, while Cajigan outlasted Bong Gamab 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.

In mixed open doubles play, Jun Villanueva and Young Son are safely into the finals after outclassing second seeds Boyet Minor and Yuko Kobayashi 7-5, 6-0.

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