CNMI junior netters 10-1 in Day 1

CNMI junior netters had an auspicious debut in the 2008 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships with Ji Hoon Heo, Mayuko Arriola, Thea Minor, Christian Miller, Rafael Jones, and Dina Jones going 10-1 in the first day of action in Lautoka, Fiji.

Heo, who has been off-island since June as member of Pacific Oceania Juniors team, leads the Commonwealth’s and North Team’s campaign after winning his first two games without dropping a game.

The 16-year-old Marianas High School student beat Devashkar Reddy of Fiji, 6-0, 6-0, and Chris Sami of American Samoa with the same score in Pool A of the boys’ 18-under division.

Other results in Pool B saw Ian Honila of Solomon Islands beat Sami, 6-0, 6-0, and Reddy with the same score.

Arriola, meanwhile, mirrored Heo’s success in Pool B of the girls’ 18-under age group after similar love-set victories over Priscilla Vosa of Fiji and Kesaia Mu’amoholeva of Tonga.

The 18-year-old University of Oregon aspirant’s main rival in the pool, Marcia Tere-Apisah of Papua New Guinea, also scored victories over Mu’amoholeva (6-2, 6-0) and Vosa (6-0, 6-0).

Minor also crushed her competition in the girls’ 13-under after she dominated Simuko Afemui of Tonga in a score of 6-0, 6-0 in Pool B. Lorish Puluspene of PNG also won against Afemui, 6-0, 6-2.

Miller and Rafael Jones are also off to great starts in their respective pools in the boys’ 13-under.

Jones defeated John Martin Kaiulo of PNG, 6-1, 6-3, and Darshal Patel of Fiji, 6-0, 6-0, in Pool A, while Miller skunked Tushant Patel of Fiji, 6-0, 6-0, and outlasted Cook Islands’ Alex Beddoes, 6-0, 2-6, 6-1.

Other Pool A action in the age group saw Christian Duchnak of American Samoa beat Patel, 6-0, 6-0, and Kaiulo, 6-2, 6-2. Pool B, meanwhile, saw PNG’s Robin Morove defeat Beddoes, 6-0, 3-6, 6-2, and Patel, 6-0, 6-0.

The only loss absorbed by CNMI junior netters in Day 1 of competition at the Robin Mitchell Regional Tennis Centre was when Dina Jones lost to Leilani Duchnak of American Samoa in Pool D of the girls’ 18-under.

Jones, however, rebounded nicely from that 1-6, 2-6 loss when she toughed it out and won over Alyssa Hawkins of Federated States of Micronesia in a 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 marathon.

Other results of Pool D in the division saw Zinnia Leamana of Solomon Islands defeat Hawkins, 6-1, 6-1, and Duchnak, 6-2, 6-2.

The CNMI junior netters are accompanied in the 208 POJC tournament by the Commonwealth’s longtime national tennis coach Jeff Race, who also used to serve as captain of the Pacific Oceania Davis Cup team. The 2008 POJC will run from Aug. 11 to 15 at the International Tennis Federation’s regional training center.