For the second straight year, Thea Minor\u2019s exploits on the tennis courts were worth mentioning.<\/p>\n
In 2007, Minor, along with fellow CNMI junior tennis player Ji Hoon Heo, graced Saipan Tribune\u2019s top stories after conquering local tournaments and holding her ground against Pacific\/Oceania netters in Fiji and in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
In 2008, a much improved and much stronger Minor ruled local tennis tournaments, anew playing against much older foes.<\/p>\n
Off-island, Minor added New Caledonia in her journey for international exposures beside the usual trip to Fiji and New Zealand.<\/p>\n
After a semis finish in the Pacific Oceania Junior Championships in Fiji in 2007, Minor placed third in the girls\u2019 14-and-under division of the same event in 2008.<\/p>\n
From Fiji, he went to New Caledonia, trained against some of the best junior players in the French colony and won a couple of games there.<\/p>\n
Her impressive showings in Fiji and acquired skills in New Caledonia allowed her to earn a spot for the New Zealand-bound ITF Pacific Touring Team, again.<\/p>\n
In her return trip to New Zealand, Minor did not left any of the three tournaments empty-handed.<\/p>\n
She won a doubles event and placed second in a singles and another doubles event in Waikato. The 13-year-old netter hopped on the bus headed to Poverty Bay where she got her fourth medal (a silver in the girls\u2019 14-and-under singles).<\/p>\n
Minor ended her successful New Zealand trip in Auckland and saved the best for last winning her third gold medal (doubles) and another silver (singles).<\/p>\n
The tournament in Auckland was the hardest with Minor and teammates Rafael Jones and Christian Miller having to travel eight hours and play after only a few minutes of rest. Still, exhausted and excited to return home, Minor maintained her focus to surpass her achievement in her New Zealand debut. <\/p>\n
Minor won only two medals in 2007, six in 2008, and is looking for more in 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For the second straight year, Thea Minor\u2019s exploits on the tennis courts were worth mentioning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}