Quan, Buenaventura secure Fiji stints

Tim Quan and Ralph Buenaventura secured slots to the 16th ITF Pacific Oceania Junior Tennis Championship in Fiji this August after topping the boys’ 18-and-under division of the North Pacific Qualifying Event yesterday in Guam.

Quan, the No. 1 seed in Pool A, overcame Pool B No. 2 seed Justin Dugan of Guam 6-3, 6-0 to make it to the championship round.

Buenaventura, for his part, followed his teammate’s lead by making short work of an injured Nicolas Son 6-0, 6-2 in the other semifinal. Buenaventura was No. 1 in Pool B, while Son, who is also from Saipan, was the No. 2 seed in Pool A.

Quan and Buenaventura will play for the division’s bragging rights this morning.

NMI coach Reo Arriola said he was pretty confident his boys would pull off the win in the 18-and-under and he was happy that Quan, Buenaventura, Son, and Gabaldon played well.

Gabaldon upped his stock a bit by figuring in the battle for third and fourth when he downed Guam’s Nikhil Singh 6-2, 6-0.

While the boys took care of business in the 18-and-under, teenage sensation and Arriola’s sister Mayuko suffered her first defeat of the tournament when she fell to No. 1 seed Michelle Pang 6-1, 6-2.

Reo Arriola said that, although Mayuko lost, it was the first time anyone in the tournament was able to get a score playing against Pang, who trains in the Philippines and topped the same tournament last year.

Ji Hoon Heo, meanwhile, continued his amazing run in the boys’ 14-and-under as the little dynamo recorded his fifth and sixth wins yesterday. He first clobbered compatriot Russell Buenaventura 6-0, 6-1 and then later routed Palau’s Odanges Dengokl with the same score.

Russell Buenaventura wasn’t so fortunate as he dropped his two games yesterday. Aside from losing to Heo, he was also defeated by Lloyd Yamada of the Federated States of Micronesia and kissed his Fiji hopes goodbye.

Arriola said he felt bad about Russell Buenaventura’s twin setbacks yesterday but said at least he went down fighting.

While lamenting Russell Buenaventura’s losses, Arriola also celebrated Calvin Yang’s first victory of the tourney when the newcomer turned back Roman Duenas 6-4, 6-2. Yang lost to Odi Dengokl earlier in the morning.

In the girls’ 18-and-under, Lila Mailman is a shoo-in for one of two spots to Fiji after she beat fellow Saipan netters Vivian Lee and Audrey Motto. Mailman started out with a 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 win over Lee in the morning and then capped it off with a 6-3, 6-2 conquest of Motto in the afternoon.

It turned out to be a bad day for Lee, as the sprightly teen struggled against Guam’s Terea Tapu and fell 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. The loss created a three-way logjam for second place between Lee, Motto, and Tapu.