{"id":407566,"date":"2024-04-18T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=407566"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"La-Hunn-wins-first-match-in-Week-2-of-J30-in-Fiji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/La-Hunn-wins-first-match-in-Week-2-of-J30-in-Fiji\/","title":{"rendered":"La Hunn wins first match in Week 2 of J30 in Fiji"},"content":{"rendered":"

La Hunn Lam debuted strong in Week 2 of the International Tennis Federation\u2019s J30 tournament last Monday in Lautoka, Fiji.<\/p>\n

The 14-year-old CNMI netter beat New Zealand\u2019s Alvin Na in the first round of the boys 18 division, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was losing 4-1 in the first set but I came back. It was 6-5 for the New Zealand player and he had two set points but I never gave up and won the game and won the tiebreaker, 7-4. In the second set I was playing more consistent and more aggressive than the other player,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lam said it also helped that he was \u201cplaying more consistent and smarter and also not giving him (Na) a chance to attack me by moving him around the court,\u201d after he went down big in the opening set.<\/p>\n

He then thanked his family, CNMI national coach Jeff Race, the CNMI tennis national team, and all his friends for their continued support in his tennis career.<\/p>\n

Lam\u2019s campaign on Week 2 of the J30 tournament continued with a loss to Australia\u2019s Bryan Dickson, 2-6, 1-6.<\/p>\n

In the doubles, he and Junhyuk Seo of South Korea were beaten by China\u2019s Junzhang Fu and Yulin Li, 2-6, 0-6.<\/p>\n

The week before in Week 1 of the J30 tourney, Lam lost both in the singles and doubles. He lost a 4-6, 4-6 decision against Aussie Benjamin Chisholm before he and Hiva Kelley of Tahiti dropped a 3-6, 3-6 match against Jacob Cairncross and Harry Forsyth, also of Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played pretty good for singles match but I wasn\u2019t playing well enough tactically and lost 6-4 6-4, but I learned something after the match so it was a good experience. I played doubles with Hiva Kelley, who is a good friend of mine and we played really good. We had one game that we were up, 40-15, and another game that we were up 40-0. We couldn\u2019t get the break off of our opponents\u2019 serve and they broke us two times. I think we should have come to the net more and won the important points. Overall, the first week was a good tactical experience,\u201d said Lam.<\/p>\n

When asked how it felt as a 14-year-old playing in the J30 tourney against older and more experienced tennis players, Lam said the experience was invaluable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe level of ITF J30 is pretty good since it\u2019s under 18. Most of the good players are in their 17s and they are well experienced. I am trying to keep my returns with a shorter back swing because their first serves are big and I have to keep my shots selection good to win more games. It\u2019s a very good experience for me to improve my game tactically,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

CNMI national coach Jeff Race gave kudos to Lam for toughing it out against an older and more experienced field in Fiji.<\/p>\n

\u201cLa Hunn has played in at least four ITF tournaments before this. He\u2019s getting better all the time and it\u2019s just a matter of time before he gets his first points. He has another one in Fiji next week (Week 2) and three in May. He\u2019ll play the two in Guam and one on Saipan.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

La Hunn Lam in action in the International Tennis Federation\u2019s J30 tournament last Monday in Lautoka, Fiji.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
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La Hunn Lam debuted strong in Week 2 of the International Tennis Federation\u2019s J30 tournament…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-407566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407566","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}