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Lee works way into quarterfinals
Carol Lee, seen here competing in a local tournament last year, marched into the quarterfinals of her third tournament in New Zealand. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)
World No. 369 Carol Lee labored for a quarterfinal berth in the NZ ITF Summer Championships 2017 as she needed three sets to win her third round match yesterday at the Scarbro Tennis Centre in Auckland, New Zealand.
Lee was paired against Australia Ivana Popovic and eked out a 6-4 victory in the first set, but missed a sweep when her No. 11 seed foe fought back in the second in a similar score. Facing elimination and with momentum now on the Aussie’s side, the CNMI bet regained her bearings in the deciding set for a 6-3 triumph.
The tough win ended Lee’s skid against Popovic, who defeated the Commonwealth player twice last year. The Land Down Under bet, along with teammate Chiara Di Tommaso, foiled Lee and Ayana Rengiil’s finals bid in the doubles event of the ITF Waikato-Bays Under 18 Championships in Hamilton last year after prevailing in their semis game, 6-1, 6-2. Then in the singles contest of the same competition, Popovic downed Lee in the quarterfinals, 7-5, 6-2.
With Lee this time topping the Aussie player, the CNMI bet arranged an all-Pacific Oceania quarterfinal duel against Papua New Guinea’s Patricia Apisah. The No. 16 seed Apisah advanced to the Round of 8 after eliminating Australia’s Maggie Pearce, 6-1, 6-3; New Zealand’s Holly Stewart, 6-3, 6-1; and Australia’s Joy Andreou, 6-4, 6-3.
Lee and Apisah will battle for one of the two semis berths at the lower half of the 64-player draw. The other semis ticket at stake at the bottom half of the draw will be contested by No. 5 and Malaysia’s Uma Nayar and No. 2 Alana Smith of the U.S. Smith advanced to the quarterfinals following a 6-2, 6-2 triumph over Australia’s Danielle Morris, while Nayar also soldiered on after sweeping New Zealand’s Oleksandra Kalachova, 7-6 (3), 6-1.
Meanwhile, the four other quarterfinalists are all seeded players. The list includes Uma’s sister and No. 12 seed Sara, No. 1 Baijing Lin of Australia, No. 3 Joanna Garland of Chinese-Taipei, and No. 7 Mana Kawamura of Japan.
