{"id":304824,"date":"2019-07-29T06:06:58","date_gmt":"2019-07-28T20:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=304824"},"modified":"2019-07-29T06:06:58","modified_gmt":"2019-07-28T20:06:58","slug":"cnmi-pair-moves-closer-to-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/cnmi-pair-moves-closer-to-finale\/","title":{"rendered":"CNMI pair moves closer to finale"},"content":{"rendered":"
Sean Lee, seen here reaching for the ball during the 2019 CNMI Junior Tennis Championships at the American Memorial Park, is in the semis of the boys U16 doubles (with Jimin Woo) event of the 2019 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships in Fiji. (Roselyn. B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The CNMI\u2019s Sean Lee and Jimin Woo are one step away from reaching the championship game in the boys U16 doubles event of the 2019 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships.<\/p>\n

The duo moved to the semifinals after surviving a three-set playoff match against the Norfolk Islands\u2019 Sam Cribb and Samoa\u2019s Phillip Warren yesterday in Lautoka, Fiji. Lee and Woo eked out a 7-5 triumph in the first set, but missed a sweep when Cribb and Warren prevailed in the second, 7-5. The super-tiebreak third set was another close battle with the Commonwealth tandem winning, 10-5.<\/p>\n

Lee and Woo will next face Tahiti\u2019s Brandon Fong and Vaitea Molinier with a finals slot at stake in their duel today. Fong and Molinier marched into the semifinals following a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Kiribati\u2019s Torua Boari and Fiji\u2019 Daniel Kumar. The other Final Four pairing will have Vanuatu\u2019s Clement Mainguy and the Solomon Islands\u2019 Junior Maki battling Tahiti\u2019s Manovai Elie and Mohearii Polin, who topped the CNMI\u2019s Sam Ryu and Guam\u2019s Aidan Schembari, 6-0, 6-0, and the Federated States of Micronesia\u2019s Deavyn Etscheit and Nolen Narruhn, 6-2, 6-2, respectively.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the boys U16 singles, Lee and Woo will have to part ways, as they square off in the quarterfinals today. <\/p>\n

Lee reached the Round of 8 after sweeping all his three matches in pool play of Group B. He earned a perfect record in his pool after downing Boari yesterday, 6-4, 7-6 (6). Woo, on the other hand, earned a 2-1 record and placed second in Group D behind Molinier, who topped the CNMI bet in yesterday\u2019s game, 6-3, 7-6 (4). Sam Ryu, the CNMI\u2019s third bet in the division, missed the cut after finishing Group A in third place with his 1-2 card.<\/p>\n

In other results, the Jeff Race-coached Commonwealth squad has two entries in the semifinals of the girls U14 doubles.<\/p>\n

Hyejin Elliot teamed up with FSM\u2019s Leilah Etscheit in beating Fiji\u2019s Faazreen Fareen and Kiribati\u2019s Ereti Tabekatarawa, 6-0, 6-1, to move to the Final Four against Tahiti\u2019s Vaiani Dusserre-Valleaux and Samoa\u2019s Roselyn Tupuola, who drew a bye and automatically made it to the semis of the upper half of the draw.<\/p>\n

At the lower half, the CNMI\u2019s Serin Chung and the Cook Islands\u2019 Dreena Teapa will take on the latter\u2019s compatriots Tea Akaiti Toa and Moana Une. Chung and Teapa won over Kiribati\u2019s Emmanuela Masaai and Fiji\u2019s Charlote Nicolaus, 6-4, 6-4, while Toa and Une prevailed against the CNMI\u2019s Helen Kim and Guam\u2019s Alicia Addison.<\/p>\n

In the girls U14 singles, Elliot made the grade and will be playing in the quarterfinals against Tupuola. Elliot had a 1-1 record in pool play in Group A, whole Tupuola was the top finisher in Group C with her 3-0 mark.<\/p>\n

Jimin Woo makes a baseline return during a local tournament. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The CNMI\u2019s Sean Lee and Jimin Woo are one step away from reaching the championship…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":304826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-304824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-cnmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304824","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\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}