Marcia guns for US

PACIFIC Games tennis doubles gold medallist Marcia Tere-Apisah is set to take up a scholarship offer at Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA in August.
Marcia will join sister Abigail, 20, who has been at Georgia State since 2010 and is currently their top-ranked female player while completing a degree.
The 17-year-old, who completed grade 12 in Lautoka, Fiji, this year under an International Tennis Federation-funded programme (she started the programme as a 10-year-old), left for Auckland, New Zealand, yesterday in the lead-up to the New Zealand Nationals (18 and under) from Dec 13-18 followed by the Auckland Christmas Regional tournament from Dec 18-23 before returning on Dec 24.
Father and PNG Tennis Federation officer Kwalam Apisah said it would be a challenging first half of 2013 as Marcia is scheduled to play in 12 tournaments in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Saipan and New Caledonia from January to July.
“Marcia comes back just before Christmas and spends some time with us before she starts her 2013 events, all geared towards improving her (junior) ranking and getting ready for the US,” Apisah said.
He said PNG Tennis had contributed US$5,000 (K10,340) to help pay for her travel to New Zealand with ITF covering the other expenses.
Marcia’s 2013 calendar begins on Jan 21 with a tournament in Ashburton, New Zealand, to start her ITF tour which includes an event in Auckland  on Jan 28.
She said her goal was to improve her world (ITF) junior ranking in the top 200s, and to get as much experience before  starting at Georgia State.
Apisah said his daughters’ goals would be to not only represent PNG at the 2015 Pacific Games in Port Moresby and improve their rankings but to also earn degrees from Georgia State.