Buenaventura brothers rule the roost

Brothers Ralph and Russell Buenaventura proved they are the best junior netters in the Commonwealth after winning their respective singles divisions in the Fall Classic Tennis Championships at the American Memorial Park tennis courts Sunday.

Ralph repeated as champion of the boy’s 18-and-under singles of the Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association-organized event, coming from behind to beat top seed and 2003 Suva South Pacific Games veteran Jung Mun Chung in two hard-fought sets.

Chung had a blazing start and led his archrival 4-2 in the opening set before Ralph raised his game hitting forehand winners aplenty to forge a 5-5 tie. He then took the next two games to win the first set, 7-5.

Ralph then took a seemingly insurmountable 5-2 advantage in the second set, and appeared ready to wrap up the match. But he squandered two match points to let Chung take the next two games.

His lead down to 5-4, Ralph turned up the heat in the next game and was ahead 40-15. He then closed the match by setting up an approach shot and followed it up with an overhead smash that Chung could not return.

Ralph also upended Chung with the same score in the 2003 edition of the Fall Classic Tennis Championships, one of the victories that propelled him to bag that year’s Northern Marianas Amateur Sports Association Male Student Athlete of the Year award.

Ralph reached the finals by stopping up-and-coming junior player Ji Hoon Heo 6-1, 6-4, while Chung earned a berth in the finals by eliminating 2004 UMDA Junior champion Nicholas Son in a score of 6-2,7-5.

Asked about his conquest of Chung, Ralph said that it was nice to win again. However, he admitted he still has plenty of room to improve, “I still lacked some components to get my game to the next level.”

Younger brother, Russelle, meanwhile is following the footsteps of Ralph and father Eli—a former national player of the CNMI Tennis Team and two-time medal winner of the Micronesian Games—by stomping promising Dominic von Siebenthal 6-3, 6-2.

Ruselle was in control of the match from wire to wire, dominating von Siebenthal with crisp forehand winners and deep ground strokes that baffled his opponent.

von Siebenthal also showed some flashes of brilliance but not enough to overcome Russelle’s all-around game.

Russelle reached the championship after drubbing Dylan Thorpe 6-0, 6-1 in the semifinals. von Siebenthal, meanwhile, overcame Phillip Park 6-2, 6-1 to make it to the finals. He also beat Henry Yang in the opening round 2-6, 7-5, 6-0.

In the 10-and-under singles for boys, Joseph Motto, Jr. had little trouble disposing off Rafael Jones to win the title 6-1.

In doubles play, von Siebenthal paired with Motto and took out Yang and Park 6-3, 6-2 to hoist the boy’s 14-and-under championship.

In the 10-and-under division, Cody Race and Hunter Thorpe took their own sweet time before topping brothers Rafael and Angelo Jones to win the title in a score of 6-2.