By Roselyn B. Monroyo
Variety News Staff

THE NMI’s Roy Pangelinan and Eli Buenaventura entered the semifinals of the men’s 4.0 doubles division of the Guam International Tennis Open Championship at the Hilton Guam Resort &Spa tennis courts.
The annual tournament started last Friday and based on the results posted at the tournament’s website last night, Pangelinan and Buenaventura are in Final Four.
Buenaventura and Pangelinan, who incidentally are the heads of two tennis associations in the NMI, won their opening match against Jojo Alcantara and Bobby James Cruz, 6-4, 2-6, 10-5.
Pangelinan, who heads Saipan Tennis Association, and Buenaventura, president of the Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Association, moved into the semis after beating Klen Kouke and Dan Young in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.
The NMI bets opponents in the semis are top seeds Ben Lai and Benson Au-Yeung.
The other semis pairing will feature second seeds David Lai and Khay Sung against the tandem of Alvin Brown and Sam Lai.
Buenaventura is also competing in the men’s 35+ singles and entered the semis too.
He won over John Dunmar in the round of 16 in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1 and gained a semis ticket after whipping Stephan Gibson, 6-1, 6-3.
In the semis, Buenaventura will be up against top seed Craig H. Tsuda. Brent Goodwin and Aaron Bonto will fight for the other finals berth.
Ryan Jimenez also played in the men’s 35+ singles and won via default over Alcantara. But Jimenez’s stint in the tournament was cut short went he lost to Bonto in the quarterfinals, 2-6, 5-7.
Chuck Sayon was also eliminated bowing to Alan Sung in his first match, 4-6, 2-6.
Sayon and Jimenez were also not lucky in the doubles division as they lost to top seeds Bill Camacho and Wendell Roden, 0-6, 0-6.
Pangelinan is also playing in the men’s 35+ doubles and he and partner Tracy Howard won over Ben Reyes and Alan Sung, 6-4, 6-0.
But the tandem of Pangelinan and Howard failed to move into the finals after losing to second seeds Torgun Smith and Craig H. Tsuda, 1-6, 2-6.
Next week, it will be the turn of NMI’s junior netters to compete in the Guam Open.
Nicolas Son, Vivian Lee and Ji Hoon Heo will be playing in the Open singles and doubles competition.
Former junior player Daniel Son will also compete in the tough Open singles and doubles events, which will feature top players from the Philippines, Korea, Japan and Guam.
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.