Heo to play in ITF tourney in Noumea

While her younger teammates were busy qualifying for the 2008 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships in Guam, CNMI’s top junior netter Ji Hoon Heo has spent the past 10 days sharpening his game in Lautoka, Fiji for the 2008 Open Junior BNP Paribas de Nouvelle Caledonie tournament set to start today in Noumea.

“I’ve been a bit busy lately. I arrived here in Fiji from South Korea on the 11th. Right away, I started training. I will be leaving for New Caledonia on the 21st and the tournament in New Caledonia starts on the 22nd. This is an ITF event too. I will also be playing an ITF event in Fiji as soon as I get back which starts on June 30,” he said in a recent email to the Saipan Tribune.

Heo added that his training regimen at the Dr. Robin Mitchell Tennis Centre consists of running on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 6am to 6:30am. Stretching for 30 minutes from 6:30am to 7am, and tennis practice from 9am to 11am and then from 3pm to 6pm.

On Saturdays, Heo said he and other members of the ITF Oceania Junior Tennis Team play from 10am to 2pm. “We just play matches with each other like nine-game sets. That’s about it and on Sunday, we rest.”

Heo said he has no idea who he will be playing against in New Caledonia, but he surmises that it would include some of the best 18-and-under players from Australia, New Caledonia, and other Pacific Island nations.

The tournament in the French territory will run from June 22 to 27 and will offer ITF Junior ranking points to participants.

The Noumea event is a Grade 5 ITF Junior tournament which will give 30 ranking points to the champion, 20 to the runner-up, 15 to the semifinalists, 10 to the quarterfinalists, and five to Round of 16 qualifiers.

The Grade 5 event is an introduction to the ITF Junior Circuit.

Aside from the tournament in New Caledonia, Heo will be leaving for Fiji later this month to compete in the 2008 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships and in the Air Pacific Open Junior Championships. The two events in Fiji will run from June 30 to July 5.

Heo will be leading the North Pacific Team in the POJC, while he will be playing against players from Australia, New Zealand, and selected East and North Pacific bets in the Open Championships.

The 16-year-old netter automatically qualified for the POjC after a runner-up finish in the same event last year, while his other NMI teammates vied for slots in the regional meet through the North Pacific Qualifying Tournament in Guam last week.

CNMI bets James Camacho, Mayuko Arriola, Dina Jones, Christian Miller, Rafael Jones, and Thea Minor will join Heo to Lautoka after finishing among the Top 3 in the NPQ held at the Rick Ninete Tennis Center in Tamuning.