Lee barges into Top 500 in world rankings

Carol Lee makes a return in one of her off-island tournaments this year. Lee is now ranked world No. 443. (Contributed Photo)

The CNMI’s Carol Lee made it to the Top 500 in the ITF Juniors world rankings.

Based on the new world rankings ITF Juniors released last July 4, the 14-year-old Lee is now at No. 443. She started the 2016 season at No. 748, making her the highest ranked player not only in Micronesia, but the rest of the Pacific region. Last week, she moved up to world No. 510 after competing in two ranking tournaments in Fiji and one in New Caledonia.

The Commonwealth player advanced to the finals of the singles event in both the Open Junior BNP PARIBAS de Nouvelle-Caledonie and Oceania Open Junior Championships, which are Grade 5 tournaments. She and Ayana Rengiil also marched into the finals of the doubles event in the New Caledonia competition and in the quarterfinals in the Oceania Open. In the South Pacific Open Junior Championships—a higher level tournament with its Grade 4 ranking—Lee qualified in the quarterfinals in singles and lost in the Round of 16 in doubles.

Her three finals appearances and two quarterfinals stints in the three tournaments earned Lee 55 singles rankings points and 25 in doubles for her combined 115 points (including her points in a couple of tournaments last year).

Lee was able to participate in the two ITF Juniors ranking tournaments in Fiji and one in New Caledonia after receiving the ITF/OTF Pacific Training Centre–Summer Scholarship.

Two of her fellow CNMI players—Tania Tan and Isabel Heras—also got the scholarship that brought together players in the Pacific in Fiji for more than two months of high-level training and competitions.

The three Commonwealth players were selected to join the elite group after finishing in the Top 6 in the 2015 Pacific Oceania Junior Championships, earning slots to the Pacific Oceania ITF/GSDF Touring Team Program, and producing results and showing good attitude while representing the GSDF (Grand Slam Development Fund) Touring Team.

Tan and Heras joined the same three tournaments in Fiji and New Caledonia and got ranking points in the doubles. They share the same rankings at No. 2, 212, moving two notches up from last week’s list.

Meanwhile, Lee, Tan, and Heras will be competing in their last ranking tournament under the scholarship program next month. The trio and the rest of the Pacific Oceania squad will be playing in the Oceania Closed Junior Championships in Lautoka from Aug. 8 to 12.

The Oceania Close event is a B2 competition which awards 120 ranking points to the champion and 80, 60, 40, 25, and 10 to the runner-up, semifinalists, quarterfinalists and Losers in the Round of 16 and 32, respectively. In the doubles, the champions will get 80 ranking points, 60 for the runners-up, 40 for the semifinalists, 25 for the quarterfinalists, and 10 for the loses in Round of 16.