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<\/p>\nThe Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Federation has named the NMI Davis Cup Team and it\u2019s not much of a shock that ATP Tour veteran and former Pacific Oceania Davis Cup player Colin Sinclair will lead the Commonwealth\u2019s campaign in Group 5 in Bahrain starting Nov. 18, 2024.<\/p>\n
NMITF president Jeff Race said that aside from the 29-year-old, the NMI Davis Cup selection committee also has chosen Robbie Schorr, Colin Ramsey, Tomas Abel, and Moris Villanueva (alternate) to round out the team.<\/p>\n
After a 17-year hiatus as a Davis Cup captain, Race returns as the skipper of the NMI Davis Cup team and he\u2019s optimistic about the Commonwealth\u2019s debut in Davis Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince we have to begin our Davis Cup journey in Group 5, I think that we will be very competitive and have a good chance to advance to Group 4 if everyone remains healthy.<\/p>\n
The CNMI Sports Hall of Famer said there\u2019s no doubt that the CNMI\u2019s biggest asset is Sinclair.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith his ATP ranking he will be at or close to being one of the top players there. Of course, Robbie Schorr is actively playing for William Woods University and just won several gold medals at the Micronesia Games and Pacific Games. We\u2019ve seen them lead our team to the gold so we know that they\u2019re very tough as a 1-2 punch. Colin Ramsey and Tomas are our top-ranked players based here and have been working hard to prepare themselves as well. Of course, Ramsey has played in both the Solomon Games and won gold with Robbie in the Marshall Islands. Tomas has experience playing in both team and individual situations also. Mainly everyone including myself is very excited to be a part of the NMI\u2019s first ever Davis Cup squad,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The only possible roadblock for the NMI Davis Cup team\u2019s success in their inaugural stint in Davis Cup is lack of practice time together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will meet in Bahrain a couple of days before the competition begins but we won\u2019t all be together until then,\u201d admitted Race.<\/p>\n
Sinclair, meanwhile, said he\u2019s very excited to represent the CNMI in Davis Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve really enjoyed my time in Bahrain before so looking forward to going back. It will be great to compete with old and new teammates and coach Jeff and hopefully will get promoted. It will be a tough week as there are 15 teams with only two teams going to Group 4. I know the Philippines is coming back after a five-year hiatus so they will be a strong team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sinclair said he\u2019s been sidelined recently due to a back injury, but assured everyone that he\u2019ll be back to the grind soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m taking a bit of rest now for a back injury I\u2019ve been dealing with. Will hope to play in Cairns, Australia in two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like his doubles partner, Schorr is also thrilled to again represent the CNMI in competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel super honored to be picked for this team and I hope to bring success for the first NMI Davis Cup. It\u2019s a new experience in a new place of the world for me, but I\u2019m ready to give everything I can give to the team!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His confidence is also sky high at the moment as Schorr has had great success in the college ranks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been training pretty well. I\u2019m also playing really well at the moment so I have a lot of confidence in my game right now. I just need to stay smart with my body and health, and make sure I don\u2019t over work myself, and lastly take time to stretch and recover off the court.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, Ramsey said he also feel honored to be representing the CNMI in its first Davis Cup appearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy year started out by coaching our junior Davis Cup team in Sri Lanka and now I get to play for the Davis Cup! It has been a wonderful journey this year. I hope to serve as an inspiration to the kids, all of whom now have many more opportunities open for them to strive for. I\u2019ve been playing as much as I can. I\u2019m feeling the best I\u2019ve felt in a long time.<\/p>\n
Abel also is stoked for being part of the NMI Davis Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m absolutely honored and excited to be a part of the first NMI team to play for the Davis Cup. We have a great group of guys on the team and I know we all are going to play our hearts out and bring victories back with us.<\/p>\n
As for training in the runup to the Davis Cup, he said he\u2019s been practicing a lot with the usual suspects.<\/p>\n
\u201cLots of practice with Collin, Morris, and others, plus strength training and conditioning as always. Those are key. I don\u2019t know the quality of the other teams so it\u2019s hard to put down an expectation per se, but for me and I\u2019m sure the rest of our team\u2014we go into every match wanting and willing to win it. And that\u2019s how we will go into the Davis Cup as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Colin Sinclair<\/p>\n
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Colin Ramsey<\/p>\n
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Robbie Schorr<\/p>\n
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Tomas Abel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Federation has named the NMI Davis Cup Team and it\u2019s…<\/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-413344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413344","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=413344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}