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Flashback: Carol dominates ITF tourney
In this 2017 file photo, Carol Lee competes in the Northern Marianas Junior Championships at the Pacific Islands Club court before heading to New Caledonia for two more ITF Juniors Circuit events. (Saipan Tribune)
Pacific Games gold medalist Carol Lee, three years ago today, delivered in back-to-back title matches in the New Caledonia ITF Junior 2017 played at the Ligue Caledonienne De Tennis in Noumea.
She first saw action in the singles finals match against France’s Helena Mohamed and took two sets to clinch the championship. The No. 1-seed Lee eked out a 7-5 victory in the first set before cruising to a 6-2 triumph in the second to complete the sweep and get her second title in the ITF Juniors Circuit.
The third one came a few hours later, as Lee returned to the court with New Zealand’s Holly Stewart to challenge Australia’s Chiara Di Tommaso Grace Schumacher in the doubles finals. Lee and Stewart were put to a test by their Aussie foes in the first set, as the eventual champions worked their way to a 6-4 win. Then in the second set, the CNMI-New Zealand duo showed pure dominance after taking a 6-0 triumph.
After the sweep, Lee stayed in New Caledonia for one more week to play in the Open BNP Paribas Junior de Nouvelle-Caledonie and notched another singles crown and her fourth straight ITF Juniors title in less than two months.
In the Open BNP Paribas Junior, Lee had a familiar finals’ foe in Mohamed and the CNMI player picked up where she left off after topping the Frenchwoman in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.
Lee also played in the doubles finals of the same event, but she and Stewart fell to No. 1 seed Sara Tsukamoto and Otoha Aoki, 3-6, 3-6.
Before her back-to-back competitions in New Caledonia, the then 15-year-old Lee was in Morocco and won the doubles title (with Skyler Marie Grace Grishuk of the U.S.) in the RUC Tennis Junior Open for her first championship in the ITF Juniors Circuit.
Lee finished her junior tennis career last year and is now heading to the National Collegiate Athletic Association to play for Division I school Georgia Tech on a full athletic scholarship.
