Lee, Schorr stay in contention

Robbie Schorr, seen here getting ready for a return during a local tournament last year, is in the quarterfinals of the doubles event in the Oceania Closed Junior Championships 2018 in Fiji. (Contributed Photo)

The CNMI’s Carol Lee and Robbie Schorr are still in the title hunt in the Oceania Closed Junior Championships 2018 following their victories in the ITF Juniors Circuit competition yesterday in Fiji.

Lee defeated Australia’s Roopa Bains, 6-2, 6-0, to march into the quarterfinals of the 32-player field women’s singles event. In the Round of 8, the Commonwealth bet, who also swept New Zealand’s Ema Miyaura in her opening game, will be facing another Land Down Under player in Anastacia Berezov. The Aussie set a quarterfinals date with the No. 4 seed Lee after stunning compatriot Ciara Di Tommaso, 6-0, 6-0.

With Di Tommaso booted out, only five of the eight seeded players are still in contention for the singles championship. The four other ranked players who move into the quarterfinals were No. 1 Valentina Ivanov of New Zealand and No. 2 Megan Smith, No. 7 Annerly Poulos, and No. 3 Amber Marshall of Australia.

Marshall won over compatriot Natasha Russell, 6-0, 4-6, 6-2, and will be pitted against fellow Aussie and the unseeded Tayla Whitehouse, who also needed three sets to beat New Zealand’s Jade Otway at the top half of the draw, 6-1, 3-6, 7-5.

Ivanov, on the other hand, blanked Samoa’s Eleanor Schuster, 6-1, 6-2, to arrange a quarterfinal duel with New Zealand’s Elys Saguil-Ventura—a 6-1, 6-2 winner over No. 5 Grace Schumacher, still at the top half of the draw.

At the bottom of the field, Smith prevailed in the all-Aussie match against Mia Repac, 6-4, 6-3, to move into the quarterfinals against Poulos, who triumphed in another all-Australia tiff against Helena Spiridis, 7-5, 7-5.

Meanwhile, in the doubles play, the CNMI’s Robbie Schorr and Tahiti’s Jeremy Guines also entered the quarterfinals after sweeping Ken Song and Sean Lee, 6-1, 6-1.

Up next for Schorr and Guines are No. 4 seed Cihan Akay and Nikita Volonski, who came from a tough opening match to advance to the next round. The Australian paired pulled off a 6-1, 3-6, 10-4 win over New Zealand’s Corvan Crowther and Nick Beamish.

Schorr and Guines are two of the only three Pacific Oceania players still in the race for the doubles title, as Vanuatu’s Marlin Hannam and American Samoa’s Larry Magalasin were ousted by the No. 1 seed Australian dup of Cavrak and Rinky Hijikata, 6-2, 6-4. Clement Mainguy of Vanuatu paired with Australia’s Kamil Kozlowski and they won over Peter Politis and Phillip Sekulic, 6-4, 6-4, to set up a quarterfinals game against Cavrak and Hijikata.

In the women’s doubles, Lee and her Aussie partner (Di Tommaso) fell to Miyaura and Otway in a closely fought game. The Kiwi pair escaped with a 7-6 (7) win in the first set, while Lee and Di Tommaso recovered and took the second, 6-3. Then in the super-tiebreaker third set, the New Zealand players completed the upset over their No. 3 seed opponent after recording a 10-5 victory.

In other results in the women’s doubles, Fiji’s Saoirse Breen and Schuster rallied past fellow Pacific Oceania players Ruby Coffin and Rosalie Molbaleh, 4-6, 6-2, 10-2, to make it to the quarterfinals. Breen and Schuster will challenge Miyaura and Otway in the Round of 8.