Heo settles for second in POJC

Ji Hoon Heo again settled for runner-up honors in the boys’ 18-under of the 2008 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships after losing to close friend and practice partner Lorenzo Pineda of Vanuatu yesterday at the Robin Mitchell Regional Tennis Centre in Lautoka, Fiji.

The 16-year-old Marianas High School student said his finals performance was bothered by an assortment of injuries that finally took its toll on Heo after he topped pool play and won his first two matches in the knockout round with relative ease.

“My ankle is still bad and I am in a very bad condition. Although I was not fit, I still made it to the finals. I don’t think I was mentally and physically ready to beat the guy in the finals. Although I lost today in the finals at least I made a strong comeback. I am still recovering from my toe injury and also my ankle [injury],” he said in an email to the Saipan Tribune.

Heo lost to Pineda in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2.

Heo, who has been off-island competing as part of the Pacific Oceania Junior Tennis Team since June, vowed to make amends in the 2008 Oceania Plate next week.

“I hope I will do better in the second week so I will be getting more [ITF] points. I will also try going to Japan with the New Caledonian team,” he said.

Last year in the 2007 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships, Heo lost to Daneric Hazelman of Fiji in two highly competitive sets in the boys’ 18-under finals, 7-6 (9), 6-2.

Also finishing in the Top 5 of their age groups in the 2008 POJC were Heo’s teammates Thea Minor, Rafael Jones, and Mayuko Arriola.

Minor wound up third in the girls’ 13-under division. She lost her semifinal match against Annie Shannon of Fiji, 6-1, 6-2, but salvaged second runner-up honors after winning her third place match against Tarani Kamoe of Fiji, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.

The girls’ 13-and-under age group was won by Samuelle Bull of New Caledonia after she beat Shannon in the finals, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.

Jones, for his part, managed a fourth-place finish in his POJC debut despite losing his final two matches.

After barging into the quarters with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Xyril Posala of Samoa, the 13-year-old Saipan International School student lost to Clement Coarraze of New Caledonia, 2-6, 2-6.

Relegated to the battle for third, Jones started out on the right foot before fatigue got the better of him and he lost to Robin Morove of Papua New Guinea, 4-6, 6-1, retired.

Tahiti’s Karl Yomes went on to win the division after fashioning out a 6-2, 6-4 victory over fellow Frenchman Coarraze.

The CNMI’s other campaigner in the boys’ 13-under, Christian Miller, wound up in eighth place after losing to Posala in the consolation pool, 4-6, 6-7 (5-7).

Arriola, meanwhile, posted her best finish in seven years of joining POJC by bagging fifth place in the girls’ 18-under age group.

The 18-year-old University of Oregon aspirant, who finished sixth last year, defeated Amanda Korinihona of Solomon Islands, 6-1, 6-2, in the battle for fifth in her swan song in Lautoka, Fiji.

Samoa’s Steffi Carruthers won the division after dominating Zinnia Leamana of Solomon Islands, 6-0, 6-1, in the championship round.

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.