Carol wins opener in Australian tourney

Carol Lee, seen here getting ready for the next play in a doubles game in an ITF Juniors event on Saipan, won her opening match in the Australian Winter International 2018 last Wednesday in Sydney, Australia. (Contributed Photo)

The CNMI’s Carol Lee survived her opening round singles game in the Australian Winter International 2018 last Wednesday at the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre Rod Laver in Sydney.

The No. 5 seed Lee was pitted against wild card Cyan Sun of Australia and bounced back from an opening set loss to foil the home bet’s bid for an upset. Sun eked out a 6-4 victory in the first set, but failed to finish the match when Lee recovered in the second and notched the win in similar scores. Then in the decider, Lee rode on the momentum of her second set triumph to earn another tough victory, 6-4, and advance to the second round.

Round 2 was played yesterday and again Lee had to go through an extended game against unranked Bojana Marinkov. The Australian took the opening set, 6-4, but Lee fought back in the second with a nail-biting 7-6 (7) win to remain in contention. However, Marinkov eventually ousted Lee after recording a 6-4 victory in the third set.

With Marinkov eliminating the CNMI player, the former prevented Lee from arranging an early rematch with Amber Marshall. The No. 3 Marshall defeated Lee in the finals of the Oceania Closed Junior Championships 2018 in Fiji last week and is on course to her second straight singles title after making it to the quarterfinals. The Australian also needed three sets to beat Malaysia’s Sara Nayar in the second round, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, and set up a duel with Marinkov for the semis slot at the upper half of the draw.

Still at the top half of the 32-player field, Lee’s fellow Pacific Oceania player Violet Apisah of Papua New Guinea barged into the quarterfinals after winning over Australia’s Lara Walker, 6-4, 6-4. The No. 1 seed will be up against No. 8 and Australia’s Annerly Poulos, who qualified after downing wild card Taylah Lawless, 6-2, 7-5.

At the lower half of the draw, the quarterfinalists were Australia’s Charlotee Kempenaers-Pocz, No. 4 Megan Smith, wild card Amy Stevens, and the unranked Anastasia Berezov.

Meanwhile, Lee partnered with Australia’s Chiara Di Tommaso and the No. 3 seed duo lost to the latter’s compatriots Jemma Carbis and Lexie Weir, 3-6, 2-6. With Lee and Di Tommaso out, only three seeded pairs are in contention—No. 1 Grace Schumacher and Smith, No. 4 Berezov and Walker, and No. 2 Marshall and Helena Spiridis.