Ji Hoon reaches finale in Lautoka

CNMI wunderkind Ji Hoon Heo reached the finals of the boys’ 18-under in the 2008 Oceania Junior Championships yesterday even as Thea Minor and Rafael Jones made it to the quarters of their respective age groups at the Robin Mitchell Regional Tennis Centre in Lautoka, Fiji.

Heo, who topped Pool A of his age group, beat Luke Paeni, 6-0, 6-0, in the first round of the knockout and consolation pools to advance to the quarterfinals, where he faced a worthy adversary in the person of Pool C topnotcher Duncan Maetoloa of Solomon Islands.

The two battled it out from the get-go with the 16-year-old Marianas High School getting his most grueling match yet before taking the victory with a 6-4, 6-3 win.

His opponent in the finals of the boys’ 18-under is his practice mate and close friend Lorenzo Pineda of Vanuatu.

Pineda, who topped Pool D, advanced to face Heo after beating Ian Honila of Solomon Islands, 6-0, 6-2. He then surprisingly easily took care of business against Pool B top seed William O’Connell of Fiji, 6-1, 6-0, to make it to the championship round.

Minor, for her part, won her first match in the knockout and consolation pools of the girls’ 13-under. It was not an easy victory for the 12-year-old Grace Christian Academy student though as Aniva Hunkin of Samoa gave her all sorts of trouble in the first set before prevailing in a score of 7-6 (7-5), 6-0.

She will face Annie Shanon in the semifinals after the Fijian beat River Burich of Samoa, 6-0, 6-0.

The other half of the 13-under pool will have Samuelle Bull of New Caledonia and Tarani Kamoe of Fiji taking on each other. Bull upended Lorish Puluspene, 6-2, 6-2, in the first round, while Kamoe was a 6-0, 6-1 victor over Guam’s Adrea Lai.

Jones, on the other hand, reached the Final Four of the boys’ 13-under after beating Xyril Posala of Samoa, 6-0, 6-2.

His opponent in the semifinals will be New Caledonia’s Clement Coarraze, who defeated Jones’ teammate Christian Miller in the first round, 6-2, 6-2.

Also battling it out for a semis spot are PNG’s Robin Marove and Tahiti’s Karl Yomes after they dispatched Devin Khatri of Fiji and Christian Duchnak of American Samoa, respectively.

Marove outlasted Khatri, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, while Yomes had an easier time against Duchnak, winning in a score of 6-1, 6-0.

Befalling a similar fate as Miller is seven-time POJC veteran Mayuko Arriola who came up short in her swan song after losing to Litia Godinet of American Samoa, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

She still has a chance to improve in her sixth-best finish last year after she beat Leilani Duchnak of American Samoa, 6-2, 6-4, in the consolation pool and will face Amanda Korinihona of Solomon Islands for the battle for fifth.

Another CNMI junior netter, Dina Jones, failed to reach the knockout and consolations pools after finishing with a 1-2 record in pool play.

The CNMI junior netters are accompanied in the 2008 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.