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Lee boosts bid for title
Carol Lee gets ready to serve during the 2016 IT&E Northern Marianas Juniors Championships held on Saipan last month. She is in Fiji, playing in the 2016 South Pacific Open Junior Championships.
(Roselyn B. Monroyo)
Carol Lee remained on course for her first ITF Juniors crown after advancing to the quarterfinal round of the singles event in the 2016 South Pacific Open Junior Championships yesterday in Lautoka, Fiji.
The fifth-ranked Lee gained a Round of 8 slot and moved three wins away from the coveted championship after eliminating New Zealand’s Stella Cliffe. Lee romped past the Kiwi in the opening set, 6-1, and had another easy win (similar scores) in the second to join seven others to the quarterfinal round.
In the Round of 8, Lee is paired against the U.S.’ Sara Tsukamoto, who had crossed paths with the CNMI bets twice this year, first in the Junior ITF in Guam and then on Saipan last month in a similar ranking tournament. The eighth-seeded Tsukamoto barged into the quarterfinals after ousting Japan’s Yuna Ukita, 7-6 (3), 6-4.
The winner of the Lee-Tsukamoto tiff will duel the victor in the game between Japan’s Misaki Kobayashi and Hong Kong’s Claudia Ng for the finals berth at the lower half of the bracket. Kobayashi advanced following a 7-5, 6-3 triumph over Fiji’s Mulan Kamoe, while Ng entered the quarterfinals after sweeping Australia’s Madison Bishop, 6-1, 7-5.
At the top half of the bracket, the four remaining players are No. 1 seed Kaitlin Staines of Australia, Japan’s Shiho Shibata, Malaysia Uma Nayar, and China’s Xuan Jin Li. Nayar downed New Zealand’s Janvhi Clark, 7-5, 6-3, to set up a quarterfinal game against Li, a 6-2, 6-1 winner against Japan’s Akane Koizumi. Staines also prevailed over a Japanese foe in Koharu Nimi, 6-2, 6-2, for a Round of 8 date with Shibata, who knocked out New Zealand’s Ashleigh Harvey, 6-3, 7-6 (2).
Meanwhile, Lee and her fellow Pacific Oceania player Ayana Rengiil of Palau were eliminated in the doubles contest.
Lee and Rengiil dropped a tough super-tiebreaker game in the second round against the Japanese pair of Kaede Senpuku and Shibata. The Pacific Oceania duo won the opening set, 6-2, before the two Japanese players bounced back in the last two, 6-4, 13-11, to steal the quarterfinals berth.
