By Roselyn B. Monroyo
Variety News Staff

NINE NMI netters will be competing in the prestigious Guam International Tennis Open Championship, which kicks off today on the Hilton Guam Resort &Spa tennis courts.
Junior players Nicolas Son, Ji Hoon Heo and Vivian Lee are entered in the Open singles, while Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association president Eli Buenaventura and fellow veterans Father Ryan Jimenez, Roy Pangelinan and Chuck Sayon will be playing in the men’s 35+ Masters division.
Jimenez, Sayon, Pangelinan and Buenaventura will start the NMI’s campaign in the Guam Open tonight.
Jimenez and Sayon will take on the top-seeded pair of Bill Camacho and Wendell Roden in the men’s 35 doubles. Pangelinan and partner Tracy Howard will square off with Ben Reyes and Alan Sung.
Buenaventura is entered in the men’s 35 singles and will fight John Dunmar in the round of 16.
Jimenez and Sayon will also be playing in the men’s 35 singles and will collide with Jorge Alcantara and Alan Sung in the first round, respectively.
Heo, Nicolas and Daniel Son will be battling the men’s Open singles title with 27 other players from Guam, Japan, Korea and the Philippines.
Nicolas will face Keisuke Takaki in the first, while Heo will be tested against fifth seed Quang Vu Truong. Daniel is also facing a seeded foe in John James, who is seeded seventh.
The Philippines’ Patrick Tierro is seeded first in the Open singles, while compatriot Johnny Arcilla is ranked sixth.
The other seeded players are Koreans Chul Hee Le (second) and Seong Yoon Chung (third), Japan’s Hiroyasu Sato (fourth) and Duc Duong Ngo (eighth).
The three NMI Open participants are also competing in the doubles event. Heo will be teaming up with Nicolas and they will play against the third-seed tandem of Min Hyeok Cho and Hyung Chan Lim in the first round.
The Open singles and doubles competitions will start on May 16.
The champion in the men’s Open singles will receive $2,000, while the runnerup will take home $1,200. The doubles champions will get $750 each, while the runnersup will receive $350 each.
Vivian Lee is among the 17 participants in the women’s Open singles. She drew a bye in the round of 16 and advanced to the quarterfinals against fourth seed Chiho Kobayashi.
In the mixed doubles event, Lee will team up with Tomonori Imazato and they will meet second seed Kayoko Sugahara and Torgun Smith.
The top purse in the women’s Open singles is $1,200, while the runnerup will receive $850. Doubles and mixed champions will get $500 each and runnersup will went home with $300 each.
Semifinalists in the men’s and women’s Open singles will get $750 and $350 each.