Carol still undefeated in second tourney in NZ

The CNMI’s Carol Lee is still in contention in the 2017 Tecnifibre Tennis Central Championships in Wellington, New Zealand. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

CNMI junior player Carol Lee swept her first three games in the 2017 Tecnifibre Tennis Central Championships at the Renouf Tennis Centre in Wellington, New Zealand.

Lee won a pair of matches in the singles event to advance to the third round, while she and partner Mulan Kamoe of Fiji are also in Round 3 of the doubles competition after prevailing in their first game.

In her first singles assignment, the second-ranked Lee proved to be too much for wild card entry and New Zealand’s Jourdan Craig as former blanked her foe last Monday, 6-0, 6-0. The CNMI also needed only two sets to eliminate another Kiwi in Tamara Anderson, 6-3, 6-4, yesterday. The unranked Anderson moved into the second round following her 6-1, 6-4 triumph over Australia’s Anastasia Berezov.

With Lee’s 2-0 record in the singles, she will be pitted against No. 14 seed Otoha Aoki of Japan and they will duel for one of the eight quarterfinals berth in the main draw today. Aoki marched into the third round after eking out a 7-5, 6-4 victory against Australia’s Sophia Fry, a 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 winner over New Zealand’s Ema Miyauri in the first round. Also in Round 1, Aoki oisted Lee’s doubles partner Kamoe, 6-3, 6-1.

The winner in the Lee-Aoki tiff will face the victor in the battle between New Zealand’s Nina Paripovich and Japan’s Misaki Kobayashi for one of the two semis berths at the lower half of the draw.

Meanwhile, in the doubles event, the seventh-seeded pair of Lee and Kamoe eased past the unranked duo of Kate Bolton and Craig of New Zealand, 6-0, 6-2, to gain a Round 3 slot.

In the third round, the Pacific Oceania tandem will collide against another Kiwi pair in Ivy Mclean and Sarah Weekley, who pulled off an upset in the second round versus No. 11 seed Natasa Ilic and Helena Spiridis of Australia. The Aussies won the opening set, 3-6, while the Kiwis prevailed in the last two, 6-1, 10-6, to steal the win and earn the right to challenge Lee and Kamoe in the next round.

A victory against Weekley and Mclean will set up Kamoe and Lee’s quarterfinal showdown versus No. 1 seeds Risa Fukutoki and Mana Kawamura of Japan or No. 15 Anderson and Amelia Lawson of New Zealand. The Japanese booted out sisters Tiana and Yasmin Glazabrook of Australia, 6-4, 6-0, while Anderson and Lawson topped South Korea’s Heejin Jan and Chinese-Yaipei’s Skia Kung, 6-1, 6-4, to make it to the third round.

The 2017 Tecnifibre Tennis Central Championships is Lee’s second tournament in New Zealand this month. She first competed in the Wilson Tennis Canterbury ITF in Christchurch and barged into the quarterfinals and semis of the singles and doubles events, respectively.