6 jr. netters unbeaten in POJC opener

Six CNMI bets kept their perfect records in the opening day of the 2011 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships in Lautoka, Fiji, yesterday.

In the U12 division, Carl dela Cruz and Tammy Ackerman swept their first two games, while U15’s Christian Miller and Mikayla Lopez, and U18’s Rafael Jones also triumphed in their first two matches in Day 1 of the POJC at the Regional Tennis Centre. Jake Lee played only one game in the boys U15 division and won.

Dela Cruz had his first game against Fiji’s Nathan Naidu and swept his foe, 6-1, 6-1. The Commonwealth netter then had a tougher time in his second game of the day, pulling off a 6-2, 7-5 triumph over Samoa’s Junior Benjamin. Dela Cruz is seeded second in Pool A and will play Guam’s Gabriel Tan and Tahiti’s Michael Emery today.

The CNMI’s other bet in the boys U12 division, Moris Villanueva, split his two matches. He prevailed over Vanuatu’s Julien Pineda, 6-3, 6-4, then bowed to Tonga’s Teu Ki Tongi.

In the girls U12, Ackerman shut out Samoa’s Lyla Tapusoa, 6-0, 6-0, and then topped teammate Negahr Rastguiy in the second game, 5-7, 6-0, 6-3. Ackerman will play Fiji’s Mulan Kamoe tomorrow, while Rastguiy will battle the Cook Island’s Kiana Sword-Tua and Kamoe in Day 2. Rastguiy and Ackerman are in Pool B.

In the boys U15, Miller is seeded first in Pool A and defeated Guam’s Joshua Cepeda, 6-2, 6-3, and the Cook Island’s Jake Bergman, 6-3, 6-2. Lee is in Pool D and won his first match against Fiji’s Devrath Narayan, 6-4, 6-1.

Duplicating Miller’s feat in the girls U15 division was Lopez, who is ranked second in Pool B and downed the Federated States of Micronesia’s Shawn Adams, 6-1, 6-0, and Tonga’s Simuoko Afemui, 6-0, 6-2. In Pool A, Melody Johnson is also seeded second and split her first two matches, winning over Guam’s Camdyn Nadler, 6-3, 6-0, before losing to Samoa’s Anastasia Tapusoa, 6-7(6), 2-6.

Jones got off to a strong start in the boys U18, sweeping his first two games in the round-robin competition. He first defeated the Cook Islands’ Fredrick Pickering, 6-3, 6-1, and then thwarted Guam’s Emil Penafiel, 6-4, 6-1.

In the girls U18, siblings Thea and Theecel Minor had mixed fortunes in Day 1 of the POJC. Thea won her first game in Pool A against the Cook Islands’ Lillian Maui, 6-2, 6-1, but lost to Vanuatu’s Lorraine Banimatoku in her second assignment, 6-1, 4-6, 3-6. Theecel is also in Pool A and fell to Banimatoku, 4-6, 1-6, and PNG’s Marcia Tere Apisah, 0-6, 0-6.

The Top 2 finishers in each pool in the girls U18 will advance to the playoffs for the Top 4 rankings in the field and the rest will battle for the remaining positions. In the boys division, the player with the best record wins the age group.

The Top 2 finishers in each pool in the girls and boys U12 and girls U15 will also march into the semifinals, while the Top 2 in the four pools in the boys U15 will move into the next round.

At the end of the competition, players will get points based on how they finish and these will be credited to their respective teams (North, West, and East) to determine the overall winner of the POJC. The CNMI-led North Pacific Team won last year’s tournament, pulling off an upset over the West, 131-128.