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Carol gets first title for 2019
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Posted on Mar 25 2019
The CNMI’s Carol Lee is all smiles after receiving a plaque for winning the singles event in the ITF/CAT North African Circuit yesterday in Casablanca, Morocco. (Contributed Photo)
The CNMI’s Carol Lee rallied past her highly favored finals foe to clinch the singles championship in the ITF/CAT North African Circuit yesterday in Casablanca, Morocco.
Lee defeated No.1 seed Aubane Droguet of France, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 7-6 (6) to win her first Juniors ITF title of the year.
“I was losing in the tiebreak, 2-6, but I was able to catch up with her,” Lee said. “I would like to thank Head for the sponsorship and of course the International Tennis Federation, my coaches at the ITF center in Fiji, and my family for always supporting me.”
The ITF/CAT North African Circuit was Lee’s penultimate tournament while training at the ITF/Confederation of African Tennis Regional Training Centre and besides beating Droguet, she also topped two other players from France to rule the Grade 3 competition.
In the opening round, Lee swept French Flavie Brugnone, 6-1, 7-5, while in the semifinals, the CNMI bet also took only two sets to eliminate the latter’s compatriot Celia Belle Mohr, 6-2, 7-6. Earlier in the Round of 16, Lee downed Austria’s Emily Meyer, 6-3, 6-1, to march into the quarterfinals where the 17-year-old won over Hungary’s Luca Janosi, 6-2, 6-0.
After four wins via straight sets, Lee found her match in Droguet, who was heavily picked to prevail in the finale. The French came into the Morocco tournament holding a pair of doubles titles and one in singles that she all earned early this year, as she triumphed in Juniors ITF events in the Czech Republic, Tunisia, and Lithuania. Lee, on the other hand, struggled at the start of the season, losing in the first round of two tournaments in Australia (including the Australian Open Juniors) and also faltering in the earlier round in both the singles and doubles event of her first tournament in Morocco (Mediterranée Avenir/J1 Casablanca).
With her slow start, Lee’s ranking did not have significant improvement, as she entered her second competition in the African nation at No. 170. Her French opponent is ranked No. 84 in the ITF Juniors and No. 39 in the Junior Masters. However, Lee beat the odds and stunned Droguet in the title showdown between the Top 2 seeds to have a better finish in the tournament where she first participated two years ago. In 2017, Lee made it only to the quarterfinals of both the singles and doubles events of the ITF/CAT North African Circuit.
