By Roselyn B. Monroyo
Variety News Staff

NMI Junior Team coach Jeff Race received a list of players that will be participating in the North Pacific Qualifying tournament on Saipan next year, and surprisingly, Guam’s top players were not listed in the lineup.
Missing were Justin Dugan, Ayuri Sugahara, Terea Tapu and Marten Lai.
Race, in an earlier interview with the Variety, said these players were the ones expected to give the host a tough challenge for the eight slots at stake in the tournament.
Dugan placed second behind the NMI’s Nicolas Son in the boys’ 18-and-under Pool B division of last year’s NPQ held on Guam. He was third overall behind the NMI’s Ji Hoon Heo and Son.
Lai was the top finisher in the boys’ 13-and-under age group foiling an NMI sweep in last year’s qualifier, while Tapu and Sugahara, who played in last year’s Micronesian Games, were tanked fifth and sixth, respectively in the 2006 NPQ.
“I don’t know why Guam’s top players are not joining this year’s NPQ. I was really surprised,” Race said in an interview last Saturday during the DFS netfest on the PIC hardcourt.
Variety emailed Guam Tennis Association president Rick Ninete to ask about their top players’ absence in the NPQ, but he had yet to respond at press time.
With this latest development, Race said the NMI has a better chance to claim more slots in the NPQ, which will run from June 11 to 15. The NMI coach after announcing the composition of the host team in April said that, realistically, they are looking at notching four tickets in the qualifier with Mayuko Arriola, Heo, Thea Minor and Joe Motto, Jr. having the best chance to make the North team.
Other members of the NMI Junior Team are Melody Johnson, Theecel Minor, Ilia Corella, Clay McCullough-Stearns, Rafael Jones and Christian Miller of the 13-and-under division and 18-and-under division players Russell Buenaventura, James Camacho, Benjie Decena and Jessica Soll.
“We have a good chance to get more than four slots, but we can’t be overconfident because we don’t know what other teams are capable of. They may have not performed well last year, but they might have better players this year,” Race said.
“We have to be prepared for anything, keep our focus and train hard,” he added.
Guam is fielding Min Tae Kim, Jared Lee, Brien Chen and Katie Lai, who is the lone NPQ veteran on the team, in the 13-and-under division. Roman Duenas, Alex and Angela Park, Alea Dugan, Michael Tan and Shruti Nagarajan are Guam’s bets in the 18-and-under contests.
Angela, Alea and Duenas competed in last year’s NPQ. Tan, Nagarajan and Alex played in the 13-and-under division in 2006 and moved up to the 18-and-under age group this year.
Palau has three players in the 13-and-under division in Kaito Fuji, Ngirachitei Kira and Hideyos Elchung. Its 18-and-under bets are Odanges Dengokl, Uriik Luii and Colleen Gibbons.
The FSM lineup is composed of Jericho Akinaga, Samuel Adams, Amanda Hawkins, Shawn Adams, Dayne Iehsi, Lloyd Yamada, Alex Kalau, Alyssa Hawkins, Samantha Arthur and Alona Jackson.
ITF development officer for the Pacific Oceania region Dan O’Connell will be supervising the competitions in the NPQ.
The top two players in each age group in the boys’ and girls’ division will make up the North team and battle the West and East squads in the Pacific Oceania Junior Championships in Fiji in August.