Competition is surely heating up in Lautoka, Fiji as competitors in the Pacific Junior Oceania Championships vie for the top spots before moving to event finals.
Our representing North Pacific team has consistently performed well in the matches leading up to now, most recently on Wednesday, which also brought doubles action into play.
In a boys’ 18 singles match, Marten Lai of Guam endured a 3-hour call-and-answer fight against Fiji’s Tony O'Connell.
Going into the third set at 5-5, Lai put together a 40-love lead, but was unable to seal the deal. Going on to lose 3 all-important game points, Lai fell to his opponent, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.
After an awesome entrance and second day in the championships, Guam’s Nadine Del Carmen proved she’s still on fire with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Samoa’s Simoana Reupena of Samoa in the girls’ 12 division.
The win propelled her to an appearance in the event finals yesterday against Northern teammate Negahr Rastgui, though the results were not available as of press time.
Girls’ 14 competitor Chloe Gadsden of Guam came up from a previous loss on Tuesday to knock down teammate
Mikayla Lopez of the NMI, 6-2, 6-2, claiming the no. 1 spot in her pool and a match against Katie Lai – also of Guam – in the finals.
Lai finished amid a flurry of match wins as the no. 2 in her pool after semifinal matches.
Joshua Cepeda of Guam fell short in his two boys’ 14 matches today against Angelo Jones of NMI 9-8 (8-6) and to John Kaiulo of PNG 9-2.
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Yesterday’s doubles results, provided by the Guam National Tennis Federation:
Boys’ 14
Joshua Cepeda (GUM)/Kaito Fuji (NMI) defeated Jerell Hunter (SAM)/Jake Bergman (COK) 6-4, 6-2.
Boys’ 18
Marten Lai (GUM)/Rafael Jones (NMI) lost to Chris Hargrove (FIJ)/Luke Paeni (SOL) 0-6, 3-6.
Girls’ 12
Nadine Del Carmen (GUM)/Ruby Coffin (FIJ) lost to Charity Sagiao (ASA)/Simoana Reupena (SAM), 0-6, 5-7.
Guam players’ standings
Girls’ 12
Nadine Del Carmen (5-0)
Girls’ 14
Chloe Gadsden (4-1)
Katie Lai (4-1)
Boys’ 14
Joshua Cepeda (0-4)
Boys’ 18
Marten Lai (1-4)
