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Sean to play in Junior Davis Cup
The CNMI’s Sean Lee, seen here returning the ball to Fiji’s Abbas Jiwanji during the boys U16 singles game in the Vanuatu Junior Regional Championship 2018 at the Korman Tennis Centre in Port Vila, is in Sri Lanka for the Junior Davis Cup qualifier. (Contributed Photo)
Another CNMI player has been selected to suit up for the Pacific Oceania Junior Davis Cup Team.
Sean Lee was named to the elite squad and is now in Colombo, Sri Lanka to play in the Asia/Oceania Pre-Qualifying Event, starting today. Lee will be teaming up with Vanuatu’s Clement Mainguy and Tahiti’s Manovai Elie, while Vanuatu’s Cyril Jacobe will be the group’s captain.
With Lee’s selection, the Commonwealth has a representative on the Pacific Oceania Davis Cup Team for the second straight year. Last year, Robbie Schorr and Ken Song donned the colors of the regional squad, which was incidentally captained by CNMI head coach Jeff Race. The CNMI-led team made it all the way to the finals (defeated Lebanon, Bangladesh, Kuwait, and Vietnam before losing to Pakistan) to earn a slot in the Asia/Oceania Qualifying Finals played in Kuching, Malaysia, in April last year.
This year, Lee and company will be vying for the finals slots (two) against Singapore, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, and the host country.
The 17 teams will be divided into four pools with the Top 2 finishers in each group advancing to the playoffs of the qualifier that will run until March 10.
Before being selected on the Pacific Oceania Junior Davis Cup Team, Lee was invited to train at the Oceania Tennis Federation regional facility in Fiji last year and also played in a couple of Juniors ITF world ranking events. Sean is the brother of Carol Lee, who earlier last month played for the Pacific Oceania Fed Cup Team and also suited up for the junior squad of the region.
This year’s pre-qualifying event for Fed Cup will also be played in Sri Landa with Samoa’s Eleanor Schuster, Fiji’s Saoirse Breen, and the Solomon Islands’ Zorika Morgan representing Pacific Oceania. Roxanne Clarke is the team captain and her squad is among the 16 groups eyeing slots to the finals. Singapore, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Iran, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Oman, Philippines, Qatar, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Vietnam are the other participating countries.
