By Roselyn B. Monroyo
Variety News Staff

LOCAL tennis action returns to the island next month as the Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association holds the 2007 Coconut Classic Tennis Tournament at the American Memorial Park tennis courts.
It has been two months since NMI players played on local soil, as the last time NMITA hosted a tournament was in November with the staging of the 2006 Fall Classic Junior Tennis Championships.
The island’s junior players played last month, but they competed in Hagatna for the 2006 Guam Junior Tennis Championships.
The Coconut Classic will be played from Feb. 16 to 19 with competitions in the men’s and women’s singles and men’s 40-and-up divisions.
The junior division will hold contests in the boys and girls’ 18-and-under, 13-and-under and 9-and-under.
The four-day tournament will also feature a mixed up doubles competition, in which a junior player can choose a partner from the upper age groups or from the men’s and women’s singles divisions.
The entrance fee is $15 per each player. The entry fee will cover two events.
The deadline for payment of the entry fee is set for Feb. 10. Draws will be held on Feb. 11, while a game schedule and pairings will be posted on Feb. 15 at the AMP bulletin board and at All Star Sports.
Expected to compete in this year’s Coconut Classic are last year’s champions Melody Johnson, Thea Minor, Benjie Decena, Ji Hoon Heo, Sonny Decena and Mayuko Arriola.
Sonny Decena won over Ed Johnson in the men’s singles, while Arriola topped Karen Ramsey in women’s singles.
Johnson ruled the girls’ 10-and-under, but this year she is expected to move up to the 13-and-under division, along with Minor, who competed in and won the boys’ division last year.
Sonny’s son Benjie claimed the boys’ 14-and-under beating Dominic Von Siebenthal. But this year, the Tinian bet is expected to join the 18-and-under division and trade volleys and serves with Heo, who downed Ralph Buenaventura last year.
For more information, contact tournament director Joe Motto at 287-2900.