Carol nears doubles title

Carol Lee, seen here competing in a Guam tournament last year, is in the finals of the doubles event in the 1st ITF Perlis Junior Championship 2017 after beating her semis opponent yesterday in Malaysia. (Contributed Photo)

A doubles title is within Carol Lee’s reach, as the CNMI player barged into the finals of the 1st ITF Perlis Junior Championship 2017 in Malaysia yesterday.

Lee and her Australian teammate Chiara Di Tommaso entered the finals of the doubles event of the Grade 4 tournament after beating Malaysia’s Sursharneem Shamsuddin and the Philippines’ Melanie Faye Dizon, 6-4, 6-3, in their semis game yesterday at the Tuanku Syed Putra Tennis Complex in Kangar, Perlis. The No. 2 seed Lee and Di Tommaso are at the bottom half of the 16-team draw and ousted two other pairs before eliminating Shamsuddin and Dizon, who gained a semis seat after knocking out Malaysia’s Elsa and Elysia Wan, 7-5, 2-1 (retired). The CNMI-Australian duo swept Malaysia’s Hannah Yip and Chloe Zhi Jing last Monday, 6-2, 6-0, and then outlasted Japan’s Akari Miyazaki and Yuki Sakurai last Wednesday, 6-2, 3-6, 10-4, to boosts its doubles title bid.

Lee and Di Tommaso will go for the doubles championship tomorrow when they challenge the No. 1 seed Jiaqi Wang of China and Kazakhstan’s Anastassiya Astakhova. The top-ranked pair secured the finals ticket at the upper half the draw following a 6-3, 6-1 victory over the unranked Japanese duo of Nanari Katsumi and Nanami Saito. Before bowing to Wang and Astakhova, Saito and Katsumi won over Thailand’s Kittika Aeb Iem and Lanlana Tararudee, 6-1, 6-3, to march to the Final Four.

A finals victory in tomorrow’s game will give Lee her third doubles crown and fifth overall. The doubles triumph will also hand the CNMI netter and her partner 30 (each) ITF Juniors ranking points.

Meanwhile, Lee is also in contention in the singles event. She will play in the semifinal round today (not yesterday as earlier reported) and will duel the No. 3 seed Zheng Hua Xiao of China. The winner of the Lee-Xiao tiff at the lower half of the draw will meet in tomorrow’s finals the victor between No. 1 seed Wang and No. 6 Yujiao Chen.

The singles winner in the 1st ITF Perlis Junior Championship 2017 will get 40 rankings points, while the runner-up will win 30. The No. 2 seed Lee is already guaranteed to get 20 points for making it to the semifinals of the singles play.

After the tournament in Perlis, Lee will compete in the 30th Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup, which is a Grade 3 event and offers more ranking points.