Ferrer, Kang beat rivals

J.C. Ferrer poses with CNMI coach Jeff Race after receiving her girls U12 singles champion trophy from the latter during the awards ceremony for the 2017 NMITA Junior Fun Tennis Tournament held yesterday at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan. (Contributed Photo)

Daniel Kang and J.C. Ferrer did it again, downing their perennial rivals during the 2017 NMITA Junior Fun Tennis Tournament held over the weekend at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan and Kanoa Resort courts.

Ferrer won the girls U12 singles event after dominating Anika Camacho in the finals yesterday, 8-2. Ferrer also prevailed against Camacho in the U12 singles title game in last month’s 2017 White Coconut Tennis Classic.

Camacho forced a finals rematch versus Ferrer after eliminating Dana Lee, 8-0, and Lamee Lam, 8-2, at the lower half of the 10-player draw. Lee advanced against Camacho following an 8-4 victory over Jamie Lee, while Lam entered the semifinals after defeating Bomee Park in similar scores.

At the upper half of the draw, Ferrer outclassed Hyejin Elliot in the semifinals, 8-6, to move a win away from bagging her second straight girls U12 singles crown this season. Elliot, on the other hand, gained a semis entry after blanking Seo Hee Lee, and the former eventually took first place in the division following another shutdown win against Lam.

In the boys U14 division, there was also a rematch between Kang and Richard Steele. Kang, who topped Steele in the boys U12 singles championship game of last month’s Coconut Classic, posted an 8-3 victory in their second finals collision.

Kang was at the top half of the draw and made it to the finals after knocking out Seung Won Lee, 8-0, stunning the No. 3 seed Rintaro Miyawaki, 8-4, and No. 1 Sam Ryu, 8-5. Ryu before losing to Kang defeated Seung Bin Heo, 8-4.

Steele also pulled off upsets at the bottom half of the field with the first one against the second-seeded Eugene Park, 8-4, and versus No. 4 Andy Kim, 8-2, to get a second crack at Kang. Steele defeated Jung Wang, too, 8-0, to start his series of wins before bowing to Kang, while Kim beat Hyunmin Cho, 8-2. Kim ended up challenging Ryu in the battle for third place, which the latter won, 8-6.

Meanwhile, results of the other events in the weekend tournament will be reported later this week. The 2017 NMITA Junior Fun Tennis Tournament was squeezed into the 2016-2017 calendar of events of Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association after the PIC Tennis Championships was canceled this month. Pacific Islands Club could not host the tournament this year due to construction work adjacent to its tennis courts.