Carol still in contention

ROSELYN B. MONROYO
Carol Lee is seen here returning a shot to her opponent in a Juniors ITF event on Saipan early this year. She is in South Korea and is in contention in the doubles competition in the 2018 Lee Duk Hee Cup Chuncheon International Junior Tennis Championships. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The CNMI’s Carol Lee won her opening match in the doubles event of the 2018 Lee Duk Hee Cup Chuncheon International Junior Tennis Championships to make it to the quarterfinals of the tournament being held in South Korea.

Lee was paired with Thailand’s Lunda Kumhom and they needed only two sets to beat wild card entries Eunchae Kim and Ha Yeong Ryu of South Korea, 6-3, 6-4, yesterday at the Chuncheon Songam Sports Town Tennis Courts in Chuncheon. The No. 2 seed duo is still waiting for its quarterfinals foes, who are scheduled to play their first game today. Lee and Kumhom’s opponents will be the winner between the tandem of South Korea’s Yeon Woo Ku and Chinese-Taipei’s Chao-Yi Wang or Japan’s Kyoka Kubo and Makoto Ohara.

Joining the CNMI player and her Thai partner in the quarterfinals are South Korea’s Sihyeong Cho and Yugyeong Oh and Eunji Lee and Hwui Won Wi, and the duo of Japanese Kokomi Koyama and Dutch Lian Tran. Cho and Won advanced to the Round of 8 after sweeping Australia’s Anastasica Berezov and Russia’s Maria Bondarenko, 6-3, 6-3, while Lee and Wi eked out a 3-6, 6-1 (10-5) triumph over Japan’s Kirara Morioka and New Zealand’s Elys Saguil-Ventura. Koyama and Tran also took two sets to move into the quarterfinals, as they eliminated South Korea’s Dayeon Back and Thailand’s Punnin Kovapitukted, 6-3, 7-6 (5).

Meanwhile, Lee is out of contention in the singles event of the Lee Duk Hee Cup.

The No. 7 was stunned by the unranked Dayeon Back of South Korea, 6-1, 6-2, during their first round match last Tuesday. After downing Lee, Back will duel compatriot Eunji Lee in the second round. Euji eliminated Chinese-Taipei’s Chao-Yi Wang, 6-2, 6-0, to join 11 other players in the battle for quarterfinal berths in the 32-player field.

Otherds who qualified to the second round were No. 1 Sohyun Park, Hwui Won Wi, and Yeon Woo Ku of South Korea, Megan Smith, Amber Marshall, Olivia Gadecki, and Annerly Poulos of Australia, Japan’s Saki Imamura and Ohara, and Bondarenko.

The Lee Duk Hee Cup is a Grade 2 tournament under the Juniors ITF Circuit. It awards 160 ranking points to the singles champion and 120 in doubles. Lee is already guaranteed to gain 25 ranking points from the competition after marching into the quarterfinal round of the doubles event.

The Lee Duk Hee Cup is one of the series of Juniors ITF tournaments that Lee will be competing in in the last two months of the year, as she hopes to boost her world ranking. She is ranked No. 178 as of Oct. 29 and was ranked as high as 161 in September after winning a couple of competitions in Fiji.