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Carol plays for home
The CNMI’s Carol Lee poses with her doubles and singles awards after ruling the 2018 Northern Marianas Junior Championships last Sunday at the Pacific Islands Club Saipan hard courts. (Contributed Photo)
The CNMI’s Carol Lee took a long journey to get home and play in the 2018 Northern Marianas Junior Championships.
She went on to top both the singles and doubles events of the ITF Juniors competition, making the trip from Africa to Saipan worth it.
“It was a long journey but it was definitely worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I’m proud of representing Saipan and anywhere I go play my tourneys, I would always represent Saipan, my home,” Lee said after beating Hong Kong’s Wing Ka Lin in the singles finals last Sunday at the Pacific Islands Club Saipan court.
The 16-year-old was in Morocco for a month and played her last tournament there at the Mediterranée Avenir. She stayed at the ITF regional facility in the African nation to train and just arrived on Saipan a day before the tournament started.
Lee could have passed on the chance to play in the CNMI-hosted event, as it was just a Grade 5 competition and the Junior ITF rankings points at stake would not greatly affect her rankings. Lee has also been competing in high-ranking events off-island, but she wanted to come home and play.
“It feels good winning at home. I’ve always wanted to win this tournament and I am really happy my schedule allowed me to play here,” she said.
After sweeping past week’s competition, the Commonwealth is scheduled to leave Saipan for Fiji today to train in the regional facility and later represent the islands in the Nations Cup Pacific.
“After that, I will train and play in the ITF tournaments there. My focus now will be to prepare for tournaments in the latter half of the year, which will be very important,” Lee said.
The Saipan Community School graduate is hoping to bolster her world rankings to be able to play more Grade 1, A and B competitions. She is currently ranked at No. 241 and achieved her highest rank early this year at No. 178.
