Sport Preview: Tennis
Papua New Guinea will again be hoping to dominate the tennis event at the Samoa 2019 XVI Pacific Games, where athletes from 15 countries will compete over 11 days from Monday 8 July at the Apia Park Tennis Courts.
The competition consists of an individual event and a team event. The individual event includes women’s singles and doubles, men’s singles and doubles and mixed doubles. The men’s and women’s team events each comprise two singles and one doubles match.
Port Moresby 2015 XV Pacific Games women’s singles champion Abigail Tere-Apisah (PNG) has risen further up the world rankings in the past four years and will be one to watch at Samoa 2019. She will be joined by her sister Marcia and nieces Violet and Patricia, all of whom are again representing PNG at these Games.
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Abigail Tere-Apisah (PNG) is one of the players to watch in the women's tennis events (Photo: Games News Service)
The women’s doubles gold medal match last time featured all four of the Apisah family, and they will be looking to repeat this memorable feat at Samoa 2019.
New Caledonia’s men’s singles gold and silver medalists from Port Moresby 2015, Nickolas Ngodrela and Julien Delaplane, are not competing at Samoa 2019 but Vanuatu’s Cyril Jacobe, who claimed bronze last time, could be one to watch.
Last time in the men’s doubles gold medal match Jacobe and his Vanuatu teammate Aymeric Mara lost out to Ngodrela and Delaplane, and Vanuatu will be looking to go one better this year.
In the women’s team event Tahiti and Fiji will be vying for silverware.
The full list of countries competing is American Samoa, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Guam, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, Northern Mariana Islands, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tonga and Vanuatu.
Tennis begins at 9am on Monday 8 July at Apia Park Tennis Courts. Admission is $5, payable at the gate.
