The Oceania Tennis Federation (OTF) and Guam National Tennis Federation (GNTF) are delighted to announce that the International Tennis Federation (ITF) has agreed that the first round of the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas, Group 2 in the Asia/Oceania zone, featuring Pacific Oceania against Thailand will be held on Guam at the Hilton Guam Resort & Spa Tennis Club in Tumon, on March 4-6, 2011.

The largest annual team competition in sport, Davis Cup by BNP Paribas has always attracted the world's leading male players. More than 133 national competed in 2010 in the ITF's premier men's team tennis event.


The Pacific Oceania team consists of players from member nations of the Oceania Tennis Federation, which includes Guam. The Pacific Oceania team will be announced in February but it is hoped experienced players from the team which beat Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur last year, Michael Leong (SOL), Cyril Jacobe (VAN) and Juan Langton (SAM) will be included.


In announcing the venue, OTF Executive Officer Patrick O'Rourke said, "This tie will be only the fourth time that Davis Cup had been played in the Pacific and OTF is excited by the prospect of playing Thailand on the excellent courts at the Hilton Guam Resort and Spa. This will bring Davis Cup to the North Pacific for the first time and tennis supporters will see excellent players from Thailand pitted against our Pacific team."

Nadine Del Carmen, who was invited by the Oceania Tennis Federation to join other juniors in the region to tour New Zealand, pulled off a major upset in the Girls' 14 division at the PBEC Xmas Tournament in Gisbourne. She upset the #1 seed Marizka Oberholzer 4-6, 6-3, 10-3 in the quarterfinals before losing to Samantha Lasslet 6-2, 6-0 in the semis. In the Girls' 12, she made it to the semifinals before losing to teammate Ayana Rengiil from Palau 6-1, 7-6.

Results!
Marten Lai placed fourth in the Boys' 18 Open division after qualifying for the play-offs, losing in the semis to Quoc Huynh 6-3, 7-6. Katie Lai finished in 5th place in the Girls' 14 Open division losing in the finals of the consolation rounds to Kelly Costello 6-4, 6-2. David Okuhama put on a good showing in the Boys' 16 Intermediate division, but didn't manage to pull off a win. His brother Derek ended up winning the Boys' 14 Intermediate division consolation rounds with a win over Christian Wacker 6-4, 6-1. And Pedro John lost in the semifinals of the main draw to Leo Dold 6-2, 6-0.

Congratulations to all our Guam juniors for a job well done!

Four local junior tennis players are bound for Hawaii this week to participate in the Tournament of Junior Champions.  This is an invitation-only tournament, whereby only players ranked in the top eight of their respective age divisions can qualify and participate.  The Championships will be held November 20-21 at the Central Oahu Regional Park (CORP) in Honolulu.
 
Players representing Guam are (left – right) Katie Lai, Marten Lai, Pedro John, and David Okuhama